For weeks, I felt behind. Summer’s long, lazy momentum faded into a blur of back-to-school lists, work deadlines, and the odd, unsettling feeling that I had somehow missed the transition. I blinked, and the golden hour started arriving an hour earlier. I blinked again, and the trees at the end of the street went from green to hesitant yellow.
So I walked. I kicked through piles that weren’t mine. I watched a squirrel frantically bury a nut, embodying the very definition of "busy." I sat on a damp park bench and just… breathed. The world smelled like woodsmoke and wet earth. For fifteen minutes, I didn’t check my phone. I just watched the maple leaves cartwheel down the street like tiny, exhausted dancers.
But today, I decided to stop chasing and start catching up. my chance to catch up autumn falls
Autumn doesn’t arrive all at once. It falls gradually—a leaf here, a chill there. And in that slow, deliberate descent, there is grace. It’s the season’s gift: a reminder that you don’t have to arrive first to appreciate the view. You just have to show up before the last leaf touches the ground.
My Chance to Catch Up (As Autumn Falls)
I was chasing the tail end of the season, always one step behind.
And that is the most beautiful place to be. For weeks, I felt behind
I realized I hadn’t missed autumn at all. I had just been looking in the wrong direction. I was waiting for a grand finale—a perfect, postcard moment. But autumn falls in the small things. In the steam rising from a forgotten coffee cup. In the first night you need a blanket on the couch. In the quiet that settles over the neighborhood as the sun sets at 5 PM.