Two quotes resonated – on beauty and changing seasons – when writing my 2018 book “Eagles and Evergreens,” one of them by novelist Albert Camus, the other epic Lewis Carroll. They wash back.
You might think Camus an odd choice, as he was a French philosopher and novelist, actually won the Nobel Prize for literature, but is considered an absurdist, a humanist who fought with the French Resistance in World War II. Perhaps he was just a widely wandering mind, always puzzling.
The quote I most like is about autumn, this post-summer, pre-winter season, brightness of change all around us, yet foretelling in this sharp shift bigger things to come. Here is the breather between hot and cold extremes, a short bridge between two great, opposing seasons, yet place of peace.
Wrote Camus, “Autumn is a second spring, when every leaf is a flower.” That simple sentiment inspired the opening for my chapter “Fall Running.” Relooking it, every year is as gorgeous.
“One day, temperatures suddenly drop. The world fills with crimson maples and flaming oaks. Sunsets refract in millions of fluttering leaves, clinging to tens of thousands of trees. Fall runners shoot down this corridor of color, instantly happy.”
“Some days, autumn is lime and strawberry, tangerine and cherry, sometimes the whole fruit bowl. Evening runs are iridescent trout, steamy lobster, green chard and pecan pie. Sometimes it is all a blur.”
Even now, years later, it is the same, peace and excitement intertwined, walks as bright and cheering as any sunny summer day or post-blizzard wallow in whiteness. Fall is fun, naturally festive, and to borrow from Camus, forests flower and every mountainside becomes a garden.
Then comes winter, and here it was Lewis Carroll who kept my attention, although I almost started that section with the inevitable Robert Frost. He did get lots of play later, but Caroll came to mind.
Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Dodgson) was almost as odd as Albert Camus, different sides of the Channel. Carroll’s life was done first, opening in 1832, closing in 1898. Camus arrived in 1913.
Still, they both loved nature, had a knack for wild thinking, writing, and living a storied life. Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, The Jabberwocky, The Hunting of the Snark.
While Camus was French, Carroll was English, don at Christ Church College, Oxford, a scholar, teacher, and writer, but also gentle by nature. From childhood, he was deaf in one year, had survived whooping cough, stammered, and lost his mother young. Still be persevered.
While Oxford does not often get the sort of winters New England does, or at least not that Maine does, Carroll was a thoughtful observer of the seasons, and so his quote popped and stayed.
The quote that will soon again describe the world around us, as we shift from Fall to Winter, is this one, and it precedes my chapter “Winter Fury.”
Wrote Carroll: “I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt, and perhaps it says ‘Go to sleep, darlings, ‘til the summer comes again.’”
The quote seems, not always but often, to describe the view and nature out a typical Maine – or perhaps northern – winter window. And then, after the chapter about a storm, I penned another called “The Aftermath,” which was often about snow showing, before the world waked up.
One paragraph describes that post-storm beauty. Contemplating my first snowshoeing expedition of the season, I wrote. “I could go anywhere. Breathing was prickly, like peppermint. The air was alive. Lungs loved it. Frozen air tingles. I was clean. Rich with oxygen, stunning to inhale. It woke me, the way mud tickling your toes wakes you. It was stimulating. This was real winter at its best.”
And there you have it, two quotes for change of season, which in turn inspired me to write, and maybe you to read. Keep your wood pile stacked, fireplace ready, as seasons come, brisk and bright, fun filled, light and heady.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
The changing of the seasons is one of the delights of being alive. I always look forward to spring and fall. Thank you for the beautiful quotes.
Anything that promotes , encourages, an appreciation and understanding of Nature is. good for the soul and spirit . The. laws of Nature, and. the order to be found in times such as Autumn ( Fall ) brings strength to all interested. The balance that is obvious at times ,not so obvious at other times makes Fall a great season to think and plan and enjoy the good things in this life. Respect for and a sense of responsibility for forests, streams, the animal residents , and thereby doing what is right – it adds to having a sense of purpose , respect for people who are on the right course , those who have Faith and good character. Trees are just great to contemplate, . Being prepared for the unexpected is one of those qualities that comes with the whole observation of Fall and the idea of the law and order in Nature.
That picture says it all, beautiful. I now live in Arizona, been a while since I’ve shoveled the snow, I loved fall.
Love me some SNOW. While inside the house, with a fireplace at my back and a glass of Wild Turkey 101 in my hand. For about 12 minutes. Then I want it ALL GONE!
But leave me the Wild Turkey….
Fall makes me think of children jumping in leaves, making leaf mazes for a game of tag, and trees taking their bright clothing off to get ready for the white bed and long nap of winter.
Good writing Mr. Charles.
My soul rushed to join in with the new rhapsody nature was writing on every leaf, The tilt of the sun painting a new arc of artistic wonders.
Fall, fall in love with this new season when love and nature’s art hold sway over each emotion my imagination could foster.. Glory be to the
treasures of fall.
Great article by hopefully the next Governor of Maine. Should be “he” instead of “be” as the second to last word of the 11th para.
I love autumn time here in the central Oregon area. Came with my husband from the coastal area almost 50 years ago and I thought I was moving to the ‘desert’. Over the years I learned to appreciate the high desert for its own beauty, and I do love it now. The wild things are so busy this time of year, squirrels jumping from tree to tree with cones or acorns stashing them in dug out holes all over the yard. The robins and chickadees balancing on the branches of the crabapple trees to eat the remaining fruit. The release of leaves from the trees we planted here drop in orderly, graduated fashion so I don’t have to rake the volumes of leaves all at once. The cats that wander in the neighborhood slink in and out, front and back, alert and wide eyed in their feline pursuits. Woodpeckers and scrub jays vying in tag for the suet feeders. And today I saw a cooper’s hawk on the fence and a neighbor cat both intent on the promise of a mouse or such thing in the overgrown juniper bushes that only they can see. I looked later and the hawk had flown off, and the cat was licking his chops a grey field mouse it’s snack. Better than TV by far the beautiful world that is all around us to see! Enjoy your piece of God’s creation wherever that may be with much thankfulness!