Bittersweet Is The Fall

Bittersweet is the fall in Maine. Literally. We have a vine here known as the ‘asiatic bittersweet’ (celastrus orbiculatus) that produces attractive red berries. They are yellow at first, but as they mature the outer shell cracks open to expose a magnificent crimson berry with a yellow coat.

Crafters here in New England traditionally use this vine to make holiday wreaths and decorate their homes. It also adorns the roads of Maine with the combination of fall leaves and green of pine trees.

But the bittersweet vine does its name justice in both sweet beauty and bitterness, life and death, because it is not only adored for its versatility as autumn décor this time of year, but it is also widespread, severely invasive and destructive. It suffocatingly twines high up around trees and sprawls over lower plants and vegetation.

It is not a native plant to the region and was originally brought here as an ornamental plant. As the vine begins to spread and grow to the top of trees it becomes the vine of death for the tree as it covers it completely. A bitter vine.

The fall is indeed a bittersweet time of the year. The natural cycle of life and death. The bittersweet time of year is the time to harvest food for the long winter ahead. Get our homes ready for the snow, darkness, and ice of winter.

In Maine the old timers say ‘button up the house’ for winter. The sweet part is people are thinking of the holidays ahead and gatherings with family and friends. There are traditional recipes. Who will make the best pie? Everyone has a favorite. Whose gravy is the most delicious? It’s a time of gratitude for everything that is good in life.

The life, when we’re aware of beauty, is kind of a bittersweet thing, it’s a transient reminder of eternal beauty, which someday we will be face to face with ~ Jon Foreman

People start to plan and prepare for inside activities. Reading, writing, painting – things you can do without feeling guilty because other outside things will have to wait until spring.

For some people it is also the ideal time to leave New England for a warmer climate. A time to explore new places and leave winter behind. A popular name for people that are lucky to be able to leave is in the fall is ‘snowbird.’ But it is still bittersweet for the local snowbirds to leave family and friends behind for a few months. On the sweet side meeting new people seeing different places having different experiences.

Also, on the sweet side of things for my family, we have several October and November birthdays. What a sweet miracle of nature is new life!

Then on the bitter side, it is the time of year some of our loved ones may choose to leave for the other side. When I am doing a mediumship reading, spirit always says they are ‘home.’ It is my belief that there is no death. Energy can be transformed, but never destroyed.

There’s always a bittersweet kind of thing, but I feel like everything had to work out the way it is. Everything that had to happen, happened ~ Bruno Mars

I know they are in a better place, a sweet place. Especially if the person has been sick and suffering for a long time. To finally be out of a body that was riddled with illness. Life is a bittersweet path between birth and death, one soul coming and one soul leaving.

As we reflect more deeply on life, we find almost everything is bittersweet.

Bittersweet as it may be, I love the fall. The trees turn luscious colors brilliant red, yellow, orange, magenta, with a little green still peeking through. Even though it happens every year the miracle of it never ceases to amaze me. And bittersweet as it may be, I love life too, despite all its ups and downs, gains and losses. Without the bittersweetness it would not be much of an adventure, now would it?