Leis on the Water

As nights grow cooler and the dawn light arrives later, I know that fall is here, despite my own desire for an endless summer.

I’ve shared here before that fall is a season of melancholy, both because I fear the darkness and cold of Midwestern falls and winters past but also because this season contains the anniversaries of passings of several friends and community members.

I find myself turning again to one of my most cherished reads, Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking. While I am have read most of Didion’s writing, her meditations on grief, and the fluctuations of it over time, are some of the most meaningful and honest passages I’ve ever read. When I am sorrowful, I return to this memoir, open to any page, and read.

Here is Joan Didion herself reading from the end of The Year of Magical Thinking: