Samhain

I watch the world around me die.
The green turns to brown.
Blossoms into decay.
I know the cold, dead Winter approaches.
I mourn the end of Summer.
The grass; the trees; the flowers; the heat.


I close my eyes.
A tear rolls down my cheek.
I breathe the last warm, damp breath of Summer.


I dread the sight of an empty landscape.
In my mind's eye, I see a skeleton of a forest.
Grey and brown.
The smell of death.
The chill of the air as it blows the life from everything it touches.


With a sinking heart, I force my eyes to open.
I behold a beautiful scene of warm colors and bewitching designs made by the naked trees and their fallen leaves.
The trees reach their arms to the sky, bare and unashamed.
I envy their boldness.


They are celebrating the year that has past and the year that is to come.
My heart rejoices with them.
As much as I will miss Summer, I must trade her for Winter.
Each so beautiful; each so different.
Summer's lush and nurturing heat, to Winter's bare and cleansing cold.


The trees wait for the snow, welcoming it into their outstretched hands.
They know this is not only an end, but a beginning.