The End, and the Beginning

Guest Opinion

By Greg Holmes | Aug. 29, 2026

Friends, the end is near!

By the time you read this column, the summer season will be coming to a close, on its way to making its glorious transition into fall. If you are attached to summer and the opportunities it affords, now is the time to enjoy the last bits of it before the autumnal equinox issues the official end of summer on Sept. 22.

Many people in northern Michigan love summer, and for good reason. Unlike winter, when many of us disappear into our arctic wear to shovel snow and scrape the ice off our car windows, summer allows us to shed these protective layers and to tolerate the intolerable. Yes, summer weather can be challenging in its own right, hot and sticky at times, but so what? Isn’t that why we have multiple lakes and streams for dipping one’s toes and swimming to cool off?

But alas, all good things must come to an end. Not to depress you, but everything, including you and the people that you love, will come to an end someday. There’s simply no way around it. Change in things and people is constant, happening on all levels, even in the minute and unseen molecular changes in our bodies.

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus summed it up nicely when he declared that “no man ever steps into the same river twice.” Why? Simply because both the river and the person are different and have changed since the first time around.

Some philosophers and theologians have referred to this phenomena of the constant change in everything as examples of impermanence. They remind us of the fact that few of us like to face and that many, if not most of us, prefer to deny. However, denying that everything will come to end someday can have unintended and potentially hurtful consequences.

Not acknowledging impermanence diminishes our experience by impacting our ability to fully enjoy and appreciate the moment. Gratitude? For what? Imagine for a moment that summer never ended. You might be excited by that thought initially, but the reality would set in over time amidst a growing sense of complacency. Boredom might actually set in. What would you have to look forward to? What memory, if any, would you cherish? What would the purpose be in taking pictures or writing in journals or telling stories if things never changed?

The fact of the matter is that the summer of 2026 will soon come to an end. Hopefully you have enjoyed it and made the most of it. Perhaps you will even miss it and attempt to store it away in your memory bank or hard drive. However, the end of something marks the beginning of something else.

In this case, the equinox marks the beginning of fall. While fall may not have the brash, in your face, let’s-party-now quality of summer, it does have many qualities that some people enjoy and look forward to. Unlike summer, fall is both subtle and seductive. The trees blush with color as they begin to undress and reveal their bare branches. It’s a time to wonder why and what created such a show when it would seem so much easier for the leaves to simply detach and to get on with it. (Failing to appreciate the process only intensifies the process at the end of leaf removal.)

On the flip side, fall can be a difficult season for some who feel that it is the harbinger of tough times ahead and even death itself. The resurrection that spring will bring is impossible for some to see, as it requires both a memory of the past and a belief, albeit at times unconscious, that it will be repeated once again. Living in and enjoying the present moments of fall are important—and the same goes double for winter—but the ability to remember and anticipate brighter days ahead can be an important antidepressant for the increasingly dark days to come.

Fall is an invitation for us to slow down and abandon the often manic, externally oriented behavior of summer. We are invited instead to go inside ourselves. It is a potentially rewarding time for introspection and self course correction.

Hopefully, the end of summer and the beginning of fall can contribute to an increased sense of wonder and gratitude in you. It is in fact a magical time of year and one that deserves to be noticed and fully appreciated.

Greg Holmes lives and writes in Traverse City.