Some things never change
September 10th
And I don't want them to change, I want to stay exactly the same. I want the warm, fuzzy and safe knowledge and feeling of some of the same things repeating themselves year after year — according to the seasons. I want those things to become and stay as a part of seasons and seasonal changes — like leaves falling and snow on the ground and the green explosion of the spring. Things that we can expect to happen and arrive in a well-known long-ago-set order that simply is.
As far as I remember, late August and early September were a time for making preserves for the coming winter. I remember my grandma making them, then my mom and her sister taking over the tradition. Of course, my grandma learned it from her mother, who learned it from her mother, etc. And I was always involved as well— helping with all the preparations. When we still had a garden and orchard, it was picking the vegetables and fruits, cleaning them as a preparation for the magic of making them into jams and spreads and pickles. Now, it is mostly buying strawberries and cherries and tomatoes and cucumbers and plums and peppers in bulk. Then also it is buying a lot of sugar and spice and everything nice that is needed to make them.
Every year there is a discussion that there were too many of those preserves made, and next year there will be more moderation. I mean — who will eat all that? But surprisingly, by the time springs comes around, there are very few of the jars left in the cellar. And the whole process waits to start as it happened before for unmeasurable years and generations.
Today, I helped my mom to put all the jars with preserves in the cellar. I think we have enough to last us until the spring of next year. And as I was told, there will be some more still to be made, but most of the work is done. And fittingly, and perfectly according to a season’s change, there are leaves already falling from the trees. The fall is coming, and I am actually looking forward to the rain and wind and days getting shorter and long cozy evenings. I want to enjoy the astronomical progress of our planet and me consciously involved in it for as long as possible. And enjoy the family ritual of getting ready for fall and winter for many years to come — but still, take the present one as it would be the last one.
