Last June, I itemized the ten things I most like about summer. While summer is, indeed, my favorite season, that does not mean that autumn doesn’t have its pleasures. And so, in this week of the autumnal equinox, I give you my ten favorite things about autumn.

10.       Halloween. They don’t make costumes like they used to, but Halloween is still fun, and every once in a while, some kid shows up with a really clever costume that makes the holiday highlight reel.

9.         A fire. The chill comes at night, or on a Sunday morning, and you curl up near the fireplace with a cozy fire, perhaps with your love in your arms, perhaps with a book. Either way, everything feels good.

8.         Meals of soup or beans. Summer means cold soups, grilled meat, and fresh veggies and fruit for weeks at a time: all wonderful blessings. When autumn arrives, you want to hunker down with a bowl of savory soup or some beans and sausage. Comfort food, food for the soul as well as the body.

7.         Football. As anyone who has read my blog can attest, baseball pulses in my veins. But my love cannot be limited to just one sport, and I do enjoy seeing the pigskin flying through the air in a perfect spiral, whether against a clear blue sky on a warm, sunny day in September or surrounded by dark clouds on a chillier November afternoon. (Though the cheerleaders and pep squads are better in September.) And the recurrent adrenaline rushes of a taut football game are amazing.

6.         Indian Summer. The last gasp of summer heat, those few days in late September (or if you’re lucky, early October), are wonderful to enjoy.

5.         Crisp air and slanting light. While Indian Summer is great, fall is about falling temperatures and the bite of cool air that makes you want to wear sweaters as you take your daily walk. The air braces the skin and quickens the mind. (And my mind could use some quickening.) Another autumn joy is the sharply slanted light that strikes, especially in late afternoon, making the shadows of trees as long as the bodies of giants, and when the many layers of atmosphere cause the sunlight to take a yellow and orange cast that brings a glow to the whole earth.

4.         Apples.  Whether crisp when fresh off the tree, refreshingly cold as cider, or, later in the season, warmed with cinnamon and nutmeg to take the chill out of your bones, autumn is about apples.

3.         Playoff baseball. Summer baseball is wonderful for its languid pace and reassuring promise of another game tomorrow. Playoff baseball, autumn baseball, is about intensity. (Alas, the close-ups of players and managers also show that it is about spitting.) Each pitch carries a back story. Each moment can turn into a pivotal turning point. 

2.         Colors. Spring dawns a bright fresh green, summer shines with a lush and darker green. Autumn displays a range of colors, as trees put on a show, each species contributing a particular voice to a glorious chorus celebrating life’s cycle, like a wonderful party of friends who carouse and laugh before settling in for a long sleep. And the wonderful colors are not just in the trees. Autumn begins with goldenrod shining as brightly as any summer flower, but as the weeks pass, that bright yellow deepens and darkens to reveal a rich, earthy hue that reminds us that it, like all of us, returns to the earth to replenish it, quietly but reliably fostering next year’s burst of life.  

1.         Thanksgiving. It’s hard to beat a holiday that calls on us to give thanks for our blessings. It’s hard to beat a holiday that brings the kids home, however briefly—or, when you’re the kid, that allows you to scoot back home for a dose of home cooking and the comfort of your own bed. It’s hard to beat a day that calls on us to undertake the chore of stuffing ourselves with stuffed turkey and lots of other goodies. And then, on top of all those wonderful things, there’s pie. Pumpkin, cherry, apple, pecan: you name it, they all lift the spirits (while lowering the center of gravity).  

Words © AtHome Pilgrim.

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