Autumnal chills in late summer

It is evening in White Plains, New York in late summer, already transitioning to fall up here. Clients have gone home, colleague is at 35,000 feet heading to his home far away.

I am headed to dinner, at a restaurant where the waiters know me, where I can anticipate good light for reading, good food and fine wine.

As I walk, I am reminded of just how fine weather, edged with cold, can be such a trigger, invigorating the senses and evoking memories. This beautiful combination of pleasantly warm mid-day mixed with an evening which is already verging on chill. The restaurant still has the windows open, with occasional breezes that come this close to making you shiver.

How many places and times have I experienced this? New Jersey, Philadelphia, Sweden, England and Washington, D.C. to a lesser extent. The chill excites the senses. You are more aware of lighting, the flickering of candles, of the chatter and conversations, the ebb and flow of social engagement in the restaurant, scents. Sound, sight, smell, all attuned in a way suppressed in muggy hot weather. You are more alert, more engaged, more open to thoughts and senses.

And the entire experience of attenuated sensitivity brings back pleasant memories of friends and family similarly congenial and encompassing from times long ago and far away.

There is a pleasant insularity. Winter struggles are coming but so are cozy evenings with friends and family. Where frayed concerns are knit up by gentle intimacy. Where insularity is not a failing but a sustenance of life.

I miss the temperate climes and what they can do to you. What they can give back to you.