Autumn Renewal: When Friendship Begins to Fall Away

 

 

Autumn is a season of quiet transformation. The air turns crisp, the trees release what no longer serves them, and the world begins to slow. It’s a time of renewal of letting go with dignity, of honoring what was while making space for what’s next.

In this post, I reflect on a different kind of falling: the slow unraveling of a friendship that once felt safe. Not every ending is loud. Some arrive like autumn winds gentle, undeniable, and necessary. If you’ve ever felt the ache of growing apart from someone you once trusted deeply, this is for you. A story of boundaries, clarity, and the quiet courage it takes to choose peace.

 

Autumn is a season of quiet transformation. The trees release what
no longer serves them and so do we.

The Quiet Kind of Heartbreak

Autumn is often called the season of letting go. Leaves fall, winds change, and the world softens into quiet reflection. But what if the falling isn’t just in nature what if it’s in friendship?

There’s a kind of heartbreak that doesn’t come from romance. It comes from trust slowly unraveling. From realizing that someone you’ve stood beside for years is no longer standing beside you. Not with cruelty. Not with confrontation. Just with silence.

It’s not the dramatic kind of betrayal. It’s the quiet kind. Plans are brushed off. Stories don’t add up. You start to feel like a stranger in a relationship you helped build.

You’ve been there for emergencies, late-night calls, family crises. You’ve held space, offered comfort, stayed on the line in hospital rooms. You’ve shown up not just once, but always.  And then, one day, they stop showing up for you. Not with anger. Just with deflection. A calendar that no longer has room for your name.

You don’t need every detail. You don’t need perfect alignment. But you do need honesty. Because without it, friendship becomes a performance and you were never acting.  So, you choose silence. Not to punish, but to protect. You step back not because you stopped caring, but because you started caring for yourself.

Maybe they’ll notice. Maybe they’ll ask. And when they do, you’ll tell the truth: “I’ve always been here for you. But lately, I feel like I’m being kept in the dark. I’m not asking for everything. I’m asking for honesty and respect.” Because friendship deserves truth. And you deserve peace.

The Autumn Hike That Never Happened Just like the trees shedding their leaves, we let go to make space for new growth. I had planned a hike with someone I once considered family. We were going to chase waterfalls in Arkansas, breathe in the crisp air, and feel the leaves crunch beneath our boots. But the plans fell through like so many things lately. So I went alone, with my dog. And in that solitude, I found something unexpected: peace.

 Raking Leaves with My Dog There’s something grounding about raking leaves. The rhythm, the rustle, the way the air smells like endings. My dog watched me with quiet loyalty, and together we made order out of the mess. It wasn’t the fall I expected, but it was ours.  Finding joy in the little things: crisp leaves, quiet moments, and a dog who never leaves my side.

Crocuses in the Snow

Winter will come not to harden us, but to cleanse. With frost and stillness, it clears the clutter. It offers rest. Reflection. Renewal.  Even in the coldest season, something tender begins to bloom. I learned to rest, to reflect, and to trust that healing was happening beneath the surface even when I couldn’t see it.

Healing doesn’t always arrive loudly. Sometimes it’s a crocus in the snow quiet, persistent, and full of promise.

Where the Flowers Begin Again

And then, spring arrives. Quietly, steadily. Opening the door to bloom again. To live in color. To welcome new connections rooted in truth.

Spring, at last. After a year of quiet hikes, solo lunches, falling leaves, and snow-covered beginnings, I’ve come full circle. The flowers are blooming again—not just in the park, but in my life. New friends, new laughter, and the kind of warmth that feels earned.

Every season held its own lesson: 🍁 Autumn taught me to let go. ❄️ Winter showed me how to endure. 🌷 Spring reminds me how to begin again.

Healing isn’t linear it’s cyclical, like the earth itself. And here I am, blooming too.

I walked through every season to find this one where laughter returns, roots deepen, and everything begins to bloom.

This article published by Susan Golis, Freelance Writer, blogger, and Content Creator.  AI images created by Susan Golis 

Autumn Season is Best for Activities Recipes Crafts

Today was warm so my husband and I went to our storage shed to organize the autumn season decorations and my craft things. There were 22 storage boxes labeled for the autumn season.  In comparison to the other holidays, the autumn season had more storage containers for crafts, decorations, kitchen recipes, and there was no question about it, the autumn season is by far the best and favorite season at my house.

Know that we start preparing for the travel activities in early summer, plus how we will decorate the yard and home is planned in July. Which includes what crafts we will do for the upcoming season and how we will decorate for the holidays; Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Autumn is the longest and the best season for activities, recipes, and crafts as each year is a bigger celebration than the year before? Hoping this year will be the best autumn ever.

Autumn decor ideas for living room

Autumn Harvest Living Room Decor by sgolis featuring Zazzle throw pillows

Here are a few of my favorite blog posts; activities, recipes, and decorations/crafts for the autumn season.

Mushroom hunt in the woods

Autumn parties; plans and menu ideas

Decorating your autumn home

Decorating Bedroom for Autumn

Today I took some time to make plans to decorate my bedroom for the autumn season. Granted I have never decorated my bedroom for the change of seasons but since my husband has been spending more time in our newly renovated room I thought I would pop decorate it so we can both it enjoy this space throughout the season.

Cozy Autumn Bedroom by sgolis 

The fall colors are warm and earthy; gold, orange, brown and touches of gold. These colors will give the bedroom a cozy feeling and it will be a great place for my husband to relax.

We just painted the walls a warm flax color and I do not plan on painting an accent wall, instead, I will hang a few seasonal posters in hardwood frames. I also thought chocolate brown or pumpkin spice drapes would be eye-appealing window treatments. Then all that would be needed would be a garland of fall colored maple leaves to drape across the drapery rod or maybe accent the post as a wall decoration.

Presently our comforter set is chocolate brown and instead of buying a duvet cover I think I will update the bed with assorted seasonal pillows and add a fall theme printed fleece blanket.

Then for the dresser, I thought I would add a lamp and a stack of books. I think this would create a focal area that would be eye appealing.

Do you decorate your master bedroom for the autumn season. 

Apple Pear Chutney with Cranberries

In the autumn my family harvests the pears and the apples and my job is to come up with recipes for the bushes of fruit.  I make the traditional things like apple-pear pie, apple-pear sauce, apple-pear muffins but this year we also made apple pear and cranberry chutney. 

My husband helped me to get the fruit ready for the chutney and the day before we peeled and cored a bushel of apples and pears. When the peeling was done husband chopped all of the fruit and then slow cooked the fruit; apples, pears with granulated sugar, cinnamon, apple cider vinegar, apple juice and water.

The fruit cooked on the stove for several hours.  Then when the fruit was almost done my husband added the dried cranberries.  When chutney was done the sauce had thicken around the chopped fruit. We never made apple pear cranberry chutney before and thought the blending of the fruit was delicious. 

Hunt for Chanterelle Mushrooms in Autumn

Hunting for chanterelle mushrooms is a fun activity especially if you enjoy hiking in the woods and viewing wildlife. My husband and I discovered that the heavily wooded landscape that surrounds the Ozark Mountains is an ideal hunting ground for wild mushrooms. We took a stroll in the woods in the middle of September and discovered many mushrooms however most of the fungi that we found was highly toxic. Therefore we needed to do some research to learn more about wild mushrooms. 

Image Credit Wikipedia Creative Commons

The library had many books on mushrooms grown in the wild.  We studied the books and learned the characteristics of the Chanterelle mushroom;  they have a sweet scent like apricots and that they do not grow in rotting wood, but rather in areas close to the ground by oak, pine, birch, maple and other hardwood trees. We also learned that the best time of the year to hunt for these mushrooms in the wild was September through October and if the weather continued to be mild you could hunt for them in early November. 

The chanterelle mushroom is easy to locate as long as you keep your eyes on the soil line, they are a brightly hued orange-yellow, although there is a copycat mushroom that is highly poisonous. So you need to be certain that what you are picking is a chanterelle mushroom.  After weeks of studying books on wild mushrooms we decided it was to our best interest to hire a mushroom picker to make sure that what we found was edible. My brother volunteered his services and thus it was a fun autumn family activity.

We selected a day in autumn when there was rain in the forecast and we prepared for the day by gathering our rain gear, hiking boots and pest repellent.The expert mushroom picker met with us in the morning and we spend most of the days in the woods hunting for wild chanterelle mushrooms. 

Note:  Hunting for wild mushrooms is nothing like strolling down a nature trail, to be successful in mushroom hunting you need to go off trail and walk through leaf piles, climb over timber and cross over streams.  You may find the mushrooms in moss or pine needles and it will require you to gently move the moss or needles away from the mushroom stalk and you may get your hands dirty.   If this is not to your liking then trust me hunting wild chanterelle mushrooms is not a hobby for you.  

Plan to Celebrate the Autumn Season

Autumn is visiting me and I am making plans to celebrate the season. The leaves are starting to fall from the trees in my hometown. The nights are dipping into the low 50's and the days are no warmer then the mid 50’s. This is an indication that summer has ended and the season called autumn has begun.

This is the time of the year when we start to think about comfort foods rich hearty soups, chili and stews. Pot roast for supper, melt in your mouth popovers,pumpkin pie, and apple crisp. 

 Autumn is also a time when we participate in outdoor activities with your friends and your family.    Today I went to the Audubon nature center and hiked on the nature trail. The trees along the creek were in peak color. I watched the colorful leaves float in the breeze. It was as if they were slow dancing. 

 The sun was bright and I could feel the warmth upon my face. There was a cool breeze that I felt whenever I walked in the shadows and that is when I thought of pumpkin spiced coffee. 

At the end of the nature trail, there was a park bench directly next to a sugar maple tree. I sat at a park bench and thought about all of the things that I must do. 

I will make a butternut squash soup for supper, and while it is cooking, I will roast some pumpkin seeds for my family to snack on. 

Then I will run to the craft store and pick up a few items to start my autumn decorations. Run by the farmers market to select some juicy apples for an apple crisp for dessert. I will serve this delicious dessert to my family by the fireplace. I am wondering does autumn get better than this?

I had better get busy, as I have many things to do. Why not make some plans of your own to celebrate the autumn season.