For some reason, the poles of summer and winter have always felt very masculine to me. Nature is either standing tall or fallen frozen. Meanwhile, fall and spring evoke a mysterious feminine energy, like a dancer. During fall and spring my senses are fully activated.
I live next to the James River in the heart of Virginia and spend a lot of time in the forest walking with my wife, jogging, and letting the kids roam. My favorite senses of early Fall: the smell of overripe paw paws and walnuts, the feeling of river water that’s finally cooling down and those first cold gusts, the sight of fallen cottonwood leaves and bright red creeper vines, and the sound of southbound geese and a white-tail fawn bolting across the trail to catch up with its mother. So much sensation!
Even as winter reduces the forest to bones, I can count on schizophrenic squirrel activity, the lonely call of the coal train as it rumbles east, and the river itself, quietly carrying the clouds to the sea as if in prayer.
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