The Shortest Season

Autumn is the shortest season in Kyrgyzstan, or so it feels to me. Summer has ended and the evenings now contain a distinct chill reminding us winter is approaching. Snow could hit us in less than a month, meaning the Fall season lasts about six weeks here in the Kyrgyz mountains. If one is lucky.

I've always enjoyed autumn, its mild weather, and the brilliant colors of the changing foliage. The flavors of autumn arrived today in our dining hall in the form of a mellow bowl of pumpkin soup. Apples and the last orchard fruits are making their appearance. It is a bittersweet season--celebration of the harvest accompanied by the knowledge that bleak winter is lurking close by. It is indeed the season of lengthening shadows and the time of realization that the days of warmth and brightness are disappearing.

Fall is the season where one of the emotions I feel most profoundly is an overpowering sense of inevitability. Fall tells us that there is no escape from that which is approaching. In some ways it is a season more difficult to deal with than winter itself, because when one meets the frozen winter air, there is nothing left to do but endure it and cope with it. The reality is easier to bundle up against than the unknown cold that one imagines and dreads on a gentle autumnal day. It is a typical human response to fail to enjoy the fall, as we worry about the winter. Autumn is so beautiful and short here in Kyrgyzstan that it would be a shame not to enjoy it. And so I did for a moment or two today as I stood out on the third floor campus terrace and took in a giant breath of autumn air, listened to the Naryn River rush along its unchanging course, and watched the golden light of the season drift across the nearby Red Mountains.

Inevitability. It is not just that of the seasons that I considered, when standing out upon the terrace. Other inevitabilities can trouble one as well. No matter. The precious sliver of autumn I had grasped today was just enough for me to experience some small contentment and to gather a fraction of the courage I might need to face the coming winter winds.