Autumn Regrets

Autumn.

A time for reflection.

Another spring and summer gone.

March, and the hopes and plans it brings every year, long forgotten.
Were those hopes and plans fulfilled?

Long, warm summer days filled with woodland walks, riverside picnics, new flowers discovered and planted for next year.
Long, warm summer nights filled with gatherings illuminated with fairy lights, a chance meeting, a lingering look.

But autumn draws a line under these memories. Draws a line under what has gone before

Trees whose rustling leaves shared secrets heard beneath their boughs, and indeed their own, fall suddenly silent as they begin their demise and return to the earth

Autumn is a time which offers final warmth, and colours so vivid and dazzling, pen is drawn to paper and brush to canvas, a scene immortalised.

But it heralds an end.

An end to another year which perhaps will be looked back upon with regrets.
Regrets as another winter takes hold with its thankless grasp squeezing out any remaining life left to enjoy.

But there will be hope once again when, despite the seemingly never-ending cold, grey, lifeless bleak days, the first shoot of life appears and as March arrives once again so do our hopes and plans

Remember autumn will return so plan well, be brave. Regret nothing.