Whispers of September: Orchards, Apples, and Autumn’s Plenty

September 4, 2019

As September gracefully takes her place in the dance of the seasons, there is a quiet, soulful goodness in harvest time that cannot be rushed nor replicated.

It is the moment when a gardener finally feels the embodied reward of a year’s careful planting, tending, and coaxing of the earth.

The American writer Willa Cather—ever the insightful observer of life’s simple luxuries—once said,

“She had only to stand in the orchard, to put her hand on a little crab tree and look up at the apples, to make you feel the goodness of planting and tending and harvesting at last.”

Picture that pure moment: a hand resting upon the rough bark, gazing upward to a bough heavy with fruit.

It is a quiet celebration, a private benediction whispered between gardener and tree.

How true it is—this season fattens on the richness of what has grown. As Geoffrey Hill so elegantly captures in his lines from "September Song,"

"September fattens on vines.
Roses flake from the wall.
The smoke of harmless fires drifts to my eyes.
This is plenty. This is more than enough."

Indeed, in September, we embrace the bounty that ripens slowly on the vine and the fading glamour of roses against old garden walls.

The smoke curling from autumnal fires reminds us of comfort and homecoming, of evenings spent with earth-stained hands and hearts brimming with satisfaction.

"This is plenty. This is more than enough."

Such a statement rings with the quiet triumph of a gardener’s soul, knowing that abundance comes not only in the harvest, but in the loving patience of the process itself.

So whether you find yourself pausing beneath the crab tree or watching the last rose petals flutter softly to the ground, know that September offers a wealth of treasures.

Each apple, each vine, each delicate plume of smoke rises like a song of gratitude, inviting you to savor this season's harvest and the simple, profound luxury of having nurtured life from seed to fruit.