Own work, 2013.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nNovember, though? Is ash. \u00a0November is the fire burned out, the hurry burned away. October takes the breath away. \u00a0But\u00a0November is the world taking back that breath,\u00a0pausing for\u00a0rest. \u00a0November is\u00a0the world scoured\u00a0clean.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it\u2019s because I am a teacher; early fall seems like one demand after another to me, and I reach the end of October\u00a0days like a marathon runner who staggers\u00a0across the\u00a0finish line. \u00a0By the time November rolls around, with the end of Daylight Savings Time, that extra hour of sleep feels long overdue. \u00a0I set my clock back in relief, and accustom myself to seeing the sun\u2019s weak light in the mornings again\u2013though I know the darkness will swallow it up again soon.<\/p>\n
This morning, as the sun punched\u00a0up\u00a0over a horizon neatly cleared of leaves, I watched the slanted light sweep long shadows over fields gone\u00a0bare of crops. \u00a0Geese stood\u00a0sleeping in the frost and stubble, their heads beneath their wings.<\/p>\n
Gray geese, tan fields, drab, winter-barren hills. \u00a0The color is leaching from the\u00a0world, and I am reveling in it.<\/p>\n
November is the season of rest. November is when my schedule slows for the first time since the fall began. \u00a0Thanksgiving is coming\u2013not exactly a vacation, but a pause, at least, a breath. \u00a0Outside,\u00a0the\u00a0shapes of hills and rocks come plain again. \u00a0November is when life and in the woods both\u00a0get stripped clean until they, like the air, are\u00a0clear.<\/p>\n
November is dark. \u00a0November is colorless. November is empty.<\/p>\n
But it is a darkness and a colorlessness that soothes the eye, and an emptiness that carves out a sense of space and openness.<\/p>\n
There will be time. There will be time for memory and gratitude. \u00a0There will be time for grief. \u00a0There will be time for reflection, and second cups of coffee, for walking on an empty winter beach with family. \u00a0There will be time to stop and to listen, and to hear winter\u2019s silence arrive. \u00a0Because now it is November, and the world can catch\u00a0its breath.<\/p>\n
May we find\u00a0good rest, my friends, in the kind and nurturing dark.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
October takes the breath away. But November is the world taking back that breath, taking a rest. November is the world made plain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1904,"featured_media":1310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[143,145,144,146,147],"class_list":["post-1308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cats-posts","tag-black-month","tag-darkness","tag-november","tag-simplicity","tag-wheel-of-the-year"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>