One of Those Days

Autumn is, perhaps, the only season in our region when nature truly knows how to be still.

Spring is too damp and restless, summer often feels heavy with heat, and on the coldest winter days, all you want is the comfort of home and a glass of something warming. But autumn brings that rare sense of peace and quiet — even if sunny days are few enough to count on one hand.

All it takes is leaving the city behind. Out to where the forest meets the water, where a familiar river moves slowly between its banks, slipping over stones and gathering quiet reflections of trees and sky.

An autumn forest is never truly silent. But autumn doesn’t shout — it whispers.

Leaves rustle softly underfoot, the wind moves gently through the branches, the water murmurs along the shore, and the air carries the scent of damp bark, cold river water, and the last lingering warmth of the year.

Everything around you seems to invite you to linger a little longer.

Maybe that’s why autumn always leaves me feeling quietly melancholic. But there’s no sadness in it. It’s more a quiet state of mind — one where you simply want to walk along the riverbank, watch the reflections drift on the surface, and let your thoughts wander.

Yet it never lasts long. A month, maybe two, and the first snowflakes are already beginning to spin through the air. Autumn slips away almost unnoticed, leaving behind only memories, the scent of damp woods, and photos you know you’ll return to someday.

Today happens to be one of those days.

Southern Urals, Russia.
September, 2021.
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