I’m not sure when middle-age begins, but I think by all accounts I’ve reached it. November loves to point out the passing of time. Maybe it’s the elongating nights or the winds that get colder and colder. Time feels dense to me in November. Somehow I am no longer sitting at the kids’ table or trekking back home along I-94 from college for Thanksgiving. Now I am married and am learning to carve a turkey. Now I have kids. Now I host Thanksgiving and tuck my own kids into their places at our table.

Time, with its familiar seasons, moves in a spiral- it is cyclical but never the same. 

November brings spirals to my mind. 

Strong things grow or move in spirals.

Plants spiral as they grow. You can see them in the scales of pinecones, flower petals as they unfold, fern fronds, pineapple rinds, and tree trunks. Plant structures spiral adding strength against wind and rain. 

Shells spiral; snail shells, sea shells, ancient fossilized shells. Waves move in spirals. Rivers curl around rocks. Hurricanes spin in spirals. So do chameleon tails, millipedes, succulent leaves, butterfly tongues, and on and on and on, like your breath, on a cold November morning, spiraling away from you. 

The Milky Way galaxy is one massive, bright, shining spiral of stars. And the James Webb telescope is helping us to see more faraway spiraling galaxies- our home’s sisters.

Our bodies hold spirals too. Our muscle fibers spiral for strength. There are spirals within our hearts’ structure. Our fingerprints swirl. And all the DNA in every one of your cells spirals- double helixes a’plenty. 

Strong things grow or move in spirals. 

Each November I notice that my old cat has quietly transformed into the winter version of himself. No longer stretching out on the cool kitchen linoleum or the stone hearth in the lowest level of our house, he curls up like a cinnamon roll on the nearest fleece blanket. His head tucked under his hind legs, chin up to the sky. He sleeps away the snowy months spiraled up every year. 

November brings spirals to my mind; gray clouds and early wintry winds swirling, time unfurling, and our own bodies spiraling deeper down into puffy down coats and boots, hats and mittens. There is strength in these graceful spirals filling the universe. And now that it’s November, we have all the time to hold them near, keep them warm, and settle in.