The Crickets

As I sit at my computer early this Saturday morning, I do not hear the
weed wackers, the construction vehicles or the sound of mowers.
I hear the crickets. They indicate better than any calendar can that
summer is on the wane.

E.B. White says it better than I ever could in Chapter XV of
Charlotte's Web.
Below is the passage I have read to my students and my family
every fall.

The crickets sang in the grasses.
They sang the song of summer's ending,
a sad, monotonous song. "Summer is over and gone," they sang "Over and gone,
over and gone. Summer is dying, dying."

The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last
forever. Even on the most beautiful days of the year-the days when summer is
changing into fall- the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change.

Have you read Charlotte's Web lately? And I don't mean have you watched the animated
movie. It may be entertaining but does not include the wisdom of this book.
I think it should be read every other year starting in first grade and into adulthood.
Birth, death, sadness, joy, change, friendship, longing, even flirtation and love are all in there.

Enjoy these "most beautiful days of the year!"
These days of "sadness and change"
Change is not sad, it is full of possibility.
Which is what fall is all about.