Your Warmth
We were never supposed to meet, and perhaps the world would have been better off if we hadn’t.
When we are together, things happen to the world around us. The creatures of this world get hurt, the plants suffer, and the atmosphere becomes uneasy. I smile at you, and the air around us becomes unusually warm; I take your hand, and the sky darkens over us; I hold you close to me, and storms surge across the waters. Our personalities clash too much to maintain balance… a balance that we were warned is sensitive and easily tilted between the opposite sides.
However, I care for you more than the world that rejects our union. The words mother and father once spoke long ago, about locking away my own dreams and desires in order to fit the role they had chosen for me, faded from my memories the moment I found you. All their words and warnings have become rusty pieces of my former life that I am ready to replace with the new life you have given me.
I understand that by staying by your side I could erase my own existence if I let your strength over power my own. You are fierce, strong and not easy to ignore when you want your presence to be known; then there is myself. A light breeze that gently guides you away and prepares the world for the next cycle… Sometimes I am not needed at all, skipped and forgotten by many. Even if I begin to fade, I would not mind if you let me fade away with your touch being the last sensation that I feel. The inviting warmth of your touch against my own natural coolness.
For you are Summer, the season children love and the time the world truly comes to life. Winter puts the world to sleep so it can rest, Spring tells the world that it must soon wake and then you bring the world into full bloom with bright days and loud storms. You keep the world in constant motion, making sure it gets the most out of those months you are there to watch over it’s activities.
Meanwhile, I wait for the day to whisper the world will once again being falling asleep.
But I do not want to be the one that puts an end to your fun, to your energy. Curiosity guided me to you, the desire to see who preceded me- Autumn- and the chill I carried with me. Winter and I had always been close, but Summer had been a mystery. That one year I chose to come early to catch a glimpse of your power was the year I would forever more question the balance. Your warmth was foreign to me, but it was not unwelcome. Who would ever want such a feeling to end? I began sacrificing the time of my own season to extend yours.
Winter did not approve of my choice. The bitter cold Winter would bring became colder and began to come sooner. Winter, too, was taking away my time over the world. If I would not tell Summer to leave, then Winter would… Even then, however, I could not bring myself to push you aside when it was time.
The consequence of my actions allowed the world to continue getting warmer, much warmer than before, with Winter having to work even harder to cool the world back down. Storms got stronger during Summer because I refused to calm them with my chill. No matter how powerful, how dangerous for the world or the life inhabiting it…these storms are still part of you. I could not stop them and risk chasing you away.
I want your Summer to last, Winter wants me to obey the balance.
If these be the only two possible worlds, then I will give you my time. What little piece of me that remains will be happy to feel you growing stronger… and Winter will eventually take away that little remaining piece, leaving me with nothing of my own.
I might fade completely, no longer needed in the world. However, knowing you are the one taking over that time will grant me peace wherever I may go.
In our story we may not have gotten to spend eternity together, but I have felt your warm touch. I got to see the world you bring to life. I, Autumn, got to understand the beauty of Summer. That warmth is my eternity, so thank you for giving me that piece of you.
