Cinnamon, spice and everything nice

Eighty. That’s the average number of fall seasons we get to experience in a lifetime. Putting a number on a season may seem odd as we don’t usually view them in this way. However, marking it by a number reminds us that we only have a finite amount of time to enjoy it, so enjoy it we must. 

I like to refer to fall as the “height of hygge,” a Danish concept which strives to bring about coziness, closeness and comfort. 

Although this time of year doesn’t mean we make any New Year’s resolutions, autumn still lends itself to feeling fresh with new possibilities.

For those of us familiar with growing up in North America, it meant the start of the next school year. The sun stopped blazing, but that winter chill was still somewhere off in the distance. 

For me, it meant new school clothes. Every September was my grand re-entrance into society. It wasn’t really a new year if my super low-rise jeans from American Eagle, my over-priced see-through shirt from Hollister and my chunky Converse weren’t displayed in all their glory. And the band T-shirts? I narrowly escaped any conversation where I was asked to confirm I knew any songs by whatever band I had on my T-shirt that day. Upon reflection (thanks, school yearbooks), I was never quite the fashionista I thought I was, but I strutted to my social studies class all the same, fresh notebooks and pens in hand. 

School years beginning in the fall dates back to the 18th and 19th centuries when children were needed over the summer months to help on family farms. It was during the hottest months that the harvest needed the most hands. Similar to the ending of the harvest season, the changing of the leaves is the changing of chapters. 

The summer wanderings have wound down and we’re filling up our Netflix queues. Everything the light touches is a little more golden. We find ourselves wanting to cozy up with a good book in front of a fire instead of laying out under the sun by a pool. Although no one likes to see tan lines fade, the smell of falling leaves is a smell that simply cannot be beat. 

That fall smell that we are so familiar with is actually decaying leaves. Usually when we hear that word, we don’t think cozy or comforting and we don’t expect it to smell so sweet. This is just another reason why fall is a feeling unto itself. When leaves fall from trees and begin to break down, we are able to smell them so strongly because the fall air is cleaner. 

During other months, there are many competing smells. The smell of summer heat and humidity essentially overpopulates our senses. 

During the fall season, the air itself, not unlike ourselves, gets a fresh do-over. I’m sure you have gone outside on many fall days and found yourself claiming the air is ‘crisp.’ It turns out, this is more precise than you may have originally known. 

The air is exactly that — crisp and fresh, which can describe another time-honored fall tradition: apple picking. Being an upstate New York native, I am no stranger to jumping on the (literal) wagon, sipping hot apple cider and filling up a basket or two to take home to my family. Nothing broke my heart more than getting to a section of the orchard only to find the best trees had been picked over. Never to be deterred though, I was the first one to climb all the way up to the tops of those same trees to get the best apples. Turns out, victory tastes pretty good. 

Fall is the time of year where things get quieter, simpler. Your time indoors becomes full of cozy rituals. 

Picture this: your window is open, there is a light breeze, you’re wearing your favorite sweater and your kitchen is filled with the smell of cinnamon, sugar and fresh apple slices sizzling on the stove. You’ve cracked a fresh book, the tea is poured and you’ve pulled your favorite blanket from the top shelf. Summer reading can feel like you’re stealing your own sunshine away, why have your head in a book when you can focus on your feet in the sand? But fall reading? That is earned perfection.