For an hour or two we can fool ourselves into believing that we’ve gained an hour of Saturday night partying or of Sunday morning leisure or of weekend sleep. But before long we realize that turning back the clocks forces us to face up to our own dwindling time.

Evening is already night. Soon, late afternoon will be evening. It’s no wonder that the Catholic tradition in France is to go to the cemetery on November 1 to place chrysanthemums on the tombs of loved ones, as here at Pere Lachaise.

Oh, it’s a straight path to the end alright.

The only beliefs worth holding onto are that the seasons are cyclical and that the earth will continue to rotate round the sun and that before we know it the days will be getting longer and come spring we’ll have the afternoon sky back, followed by daylight in evening. Then night will simply be night again, not day as well.

In the meantime, let’s just have a good cry for the end of daylight saving time, our fair-weather friend.

Let’s contemplate our loss…

and let go of those things we can’t change…

and hold onto to sweet memories…

and accept that for the next few months we’ll still be looking out the window from our desk in the afternoon…

when night falls.

– Photos and text © 2011, Gary Lee Kraut.

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