Longing for the ruby leaves of autumn
It’s been four months since I switched coasts. While the move has afforded me more good fortune than I could have ever anticipated, I still feel fairly consistent pangs of homesickness for Boston.
The fall is particularly difficult. Autumn in New England is more than just leaves igniting into an inferno of red and gold hues. It’s the weight of the air; the length and tone of light on rolling, amber-colored fields; the smell of the earth shifting into its evening slumber.
The longing I’ve felt for home has been more than a need to stomp my boots into crunching piles of leaves: it’s been a true, physical need to feel the cold air on my face and see tendrils of breath coming from the nose and mouth.
Other New England transplants say the feeling will pass, but it will take years to let go of. It’s like letting go of a loved one; forcing the love you feel for them to slip out from between your finger tips.
Hi Janelle,
I did not know you had moved to L.A.!! I loved reading your blog/site. You remind me a lot of my friends Sandra and Carolyn (one’s in Seattle and the other in Chicago – you’re in yet another city that I love). I think I’ll send them the link.
What brought you/sent you all the way to the other coast?
Thanks for sending me the link. I loved your molten chocolate-cinnamon cake recipe. It looks like a recipe for Mexican pots-de-creme (Mexican b/c it is cinnamon chocolate) that I found online just yesterday.
I have two cats now — actually, one of them is named Cinnamon — and am in school studying to get a master’s in public policy. In one of my classes, I’ll be writing a multi-part analysis of L.A. city government. You are my second random connection that’s arisen from there in just the past couple of days, so it must have been meant to be.
Thanks again for referring me to your site; please write again sometime!
Amy