The autumn-colored leaves whistling about on the back roads paired with earlier nights and frosty mornings makes for a consensus realization that winter is coming. Some of us find it dreadful and others find it inviting; some kick ourselves for being in nippy Pennsylvania and others get ready for a great season of skiing.

I have been thinking about how emotions can vary so wildly from person to person, and moreover, they can vary so drastically within our own selves. My example of the season fits well in that we can differ from our perspective about the season itself, but it also is true that our feelings will change in just a short period of time.

Let me explain: The same people who dread the winter feel excitement when the weather turns and the bees start to buzz about again; as is the truth for those who anticipate the winter only to lock themselves in with the A/C once the beating sun appears once more.

Our feelings, however strong they may be in the moment, are temporary. I think about that; I think about how dangerous yet reassuring that is.

We who have writer’s block for 15 hours can struggle and stress out the entire time, feeling completely helpless and then garner an idea that takes us 15 minutes to execute. After those 15 minutes, we are free - light, airy, fresh, happy, content, proud. But we had to sweat for 15 hours before that.

Those who miss their lost childhood love can go 15 years without their other half and find themselves often in depressive fits; fits of internal blame, doubt, longing. Fifteen years can be traded for 15 hours of reconnection and that is all it takes to heal a broken heart. A flick of circumstance can change an entire mindset; an entire way of being, of living. One moment you are longing for that person, and the next moment you are loving that person. One moment you are cold and miserable, and the next you’re on your porch in a T-shirt watching the 6:05 a.m. sunrise.

It’s dangerous, as I noted, because it can all change in a heartbeat. The 1969 Cadillac you have shown off for the last year can be beaten by hail and there goes your money and your mood. The Italian restaurant you have enjoyed taking your family to for years can go out of business next week. The friend you hold dear can let you down in an instant.

Luckily, the opposite is also true. The friend you lost touch with can call you out of the blue one day. The hopelessness you felt when you heard your medical diagnosis can fade in a moment when you get the news that you are in the clear. The essay you thought was due tomorrow, you find, is actually due in a month and you have plenty of time.

This exchange of emotions happens every day, both big and small, and oftentimes we do not notice. We do not dissect emotions this way; we do not see our dire situations for what they are, and what they are happens to be normal, predicable - undeniably scary and upsetting, but temporary and impermanent.

Sometimes the impermanence of emotions works out the way we want it to, and sometimes not. In the times they fail to work out in our favor, we despise the ever-changing process - but in the times it works out, we all have to admit, it is sort of worth it. Isn’t it?

Maria Rehrig can be reached at mrehrig@tnonline.com