Falling Leaves and Changing Seasons

It's a beautiful day for the last full day of summer, and while I'm not ready for a new season yet, the beauty of Autumn is already starting to pull me along into October and November. The swamp maples have turned and many have dropped the majority of their leaves by now - at least in Southern Maine - and, the big, old maples are starting to drop theirs, too. I picked up an especially beautiful one the other day and thought I smelled burning wax paper as I held it in my hand, twirling it around and admiring its symmetry and color.
The memories of celebrating changes in the seasons are strong - from making placemats out of colored leaves to blowing out eggs and coloring them, we were always doing something at home to ring in a new season. The snowman that was taller than my parents (by a long shot), the time Nancy K. accidentally lit her hair on fire when we were using wax to decorate our Easter eggs, the Halloween prank that scared some kids so badly that they threw all their candy and went running down our front stairs...all of these times are still so clear in my mind that I can still see and smell and hear the memories.
With time, I know they will fade and become less vivid in my memory. This, too, is part of the changing of the seasons. There's no way to stop it, so accepting and being in the moment is how I am choosing to celebrate these shifts as I grow older. And, with any luck, wiser.