Summer ends and fall begins

Summer in most of the cities in America is what winter is like in Bangladesh. The average summer temperature in Maryland, where I live, is 72 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 23 degrees Celsius --- the perfect temperature during winter in Bangladesh.
Yet, winter in Bangladesh is so different, so pleasant, so balmy, so delightful a surprise, so crisp and so fresh! It is hard to find in the USA a near-match for those fogs and dews, and those mystical scents of winter that we enjoy in Bangladesh. On a Bangladeshi winter morning, there's nothing like enjoying a stroll or basking in the sun at your village home nestled amid those long-known shrubs and trees. Where else on Earth can you find the warmth and the ambience of winter which we experience in Bangladesh? Where else can you afford the luxury of idling away time, sitting and gossiping by the oven at a tea-stall on the winter night, wrapping yourself up from head to toe with a warm shawl?
Where else can one find a poet like Rabindranath Tagore who conversed so intimately with a cute flower on a wintry morning and echoed her voice of anguish in such a humorous jingle: "I have lost my dewdrop, cries the flower to the morning sky that has lost all its stars."   
That is why this is the time of the year when, like many Bangladeshis living abroad, I terribly miss my home; I miss those winter times when I used to steep myself in reading and music and savour those mouth-watering delicacies of winter foods: soups, vegetables, and especially the variety of traditional pies and 'pithas' that would 'intoxicate' me with their flavours of fresh milk made dense, and molasses produced from date-palm juice.
Nevertheless, I have enjoyed this summer in America as it has given me a modicum of the taste of a Bangladeshi winter. But winter in the USA is dreadful. The average temperature is near zero Celsius.The chill of North American winter bites into the marrows of your bones.
Americans say they would not have enjoyed the pleasures of spring and summer if they had no winter. After all, if one had not tasted adversities, then prosperity would not be so welcome to him.
On September 22 summer ends in America and fall steps in. When you feel, as I am now feeling, that first crisp breeze, you know that summer is gone and fall is in the air.
With summer on the wane, autumn begins swelling. And the special colours of fall are invading nature. With fall at the doorstep, the vistas of the brilliant colours that were once vivid in summer are gradually fading. No more will those lovely little flowers be smiling at you from their beds alongside the streets.
A little bit of summer heat is still there at daytime and the night is pretty cold. It is the summer's great last heat; it is the fall's first creeping chill.
The landscape is silently exploding with a spectacular vibrancy of red, yellow, and orange leaves. The leaves have slowly begun to drop off the trees. Temperatures are dropping. Nights are getting longer. And all the woodland critters are storing up for the long haul of winter. The sky is losing its lustre. The wind is 'gaining its palls'. Yet the golden leaves still clinging to trees would create their own unmatched beauty that comes at the expense of summer's brilliance. Lovers of autumn revel in its unique ability to turn the world into one big canvas with nature's paint-brush.
Soon, the leaves of the trees will come tumbling down and the kids will be running around, kicking and rolling those dry leaves on the yards, making some swishing sounds in the neighbourhoods.
Autumn is the time when Americans with their families go for a drive up a tree-lined street or go for a nature-hike in the wild to see and be enchanted by the canopy of red, gold, and orange leaves.
Some Americans wish the autumn leaves fall as quickly as possible as there is an old weather proverb that states: "If autumn leaves are slow to fall, prepare for a bitter and colder winter." But beauty-lovers don't wish those golden leaves to fall off their branches so quickly; they want to look at the gorgeous autumn foliage for a little bit longer.
In fact, the beauty we find in the golden leaves in autumn is the death signal of their lives. The very chemical responsible for the green colour in leaves, which also turns sunlight into food, disappears in autumn, leaving other elements to shine through. As summer ends, some elements step aside and other elements take charge. The real magic is that the leaf does nothing; it just flows with the season. The leaf realises that winter is coming, and in preparation cuts things off that are hindrances to the coming season.  It knows that it cannot endure the harshness of winter, so instead of fighting against nature, the leaf prepares to say goodbye.
The season of autumn also reminds us of the 'autumn of our life' when we no more can really hope for a very lengthy life. Our spiritual inspiration and motivation might be possibly following a similar path and cycle like that of autumn leaves. Seasons of nature give us stimulus to live and get filled with joy. Nature teaches us how to accept the reality of pains in life with no qualms.
Sometimes when things die, the pain of the present masks the beauty available in the future --- at least for our offspring of tomorrows, if not for our own selves today. Like autumn's beauty, life is found in the moments when we choose to embrace the changes and muse over the colours.
When we take the time to reflect upon the marvels of nature, we begin to observe a complex yet very beautiful world cycling through patterns of transition. We realise that nothing ever stands still, that nothing ever maintains its current state, identity, or shape for long.
In fact, human life, just like nature, cycles through phases of change and transformation, effortlessly and naturally. Transformation is a natural part of life-cycle, and an important component of our evolution. It is something that is unavoidable, inevitable, and yet manageable if we accept, like an autumn leaf preparing to fall off from its mother tree, that our circumstances, needs, desires, and behaviours must naturally change and evolve alongside the cycles of life; otherwise, we risk undermining our personal happiness and sell ourselves short.
While we should understand that our current life circumstances are only temporary, we must also make use of what we have to the best of our abilities.
Like an autumn leaf, we should also at times dazzle the audience with apparel having new hues, not letting others imagine that we are in pain.
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