everybody [discovers] home in [the fall]

one of my favorite lines from the book "on the road" is:

"everybody goes home in october"

i like it because the author, jack kerouac, writes the line right after he mentions traveling through kansas, but also because of how simply it conveys the feeling of fall to me.

kerouac had just finished traveling to the west coast and was now on his way back to new york. in a culture filled with hitchhiking and unpredictable accommodations, i assume most of his friends headed home to pass the cold winter months. although not everyone lives the same vagabond lifestyle they did, it still holds true. it seems most people head, or at least rediscover, home in the fall.  the energy spent externally getting "out of the house" is now internal, spent keeping warm.  travels and vacations fade with the daylight. quilts go from being sat on, to wrapped in.

this past october made me feel that way. even activities that took place outside gave a hint of winter looming. small town fall festivals, picking pumpkins, maze-ing your way through dried corn, hot apple cider; all thing dealing with harvest.

the end of summer.

preparing for winter.

staying home.

so as mother nature puts on one final dazzling display dressed in her autumn attire, and the stars seem to stare back at us more so than the sun, i hope everyone "goes home," settles in, and prepares to spend the winter with loved ones.