Whispering Wednesday

Hari OM

It was not so much a single word that whispered away at me this week, as a concept. You see, the autumnal weather of the last several days - no, make that 'weeks' - has actually been of the sort that has one being fully contemplative.

That is to say, all one could do was sit and look out at it and wonder... the leaves are turning the characteristic shades of yellow, orange, red and brown and are blown indelicately by a strong wind. They are smothered for many of these days in various degrees of mist and the hills behind them have been rarely seen due to those mists. The rain has been everything from a mere mizzle to a full-pelt washing machine gush. There was to be no going out and sitting by the shore to ponder the puzzles of the planet. 

Instead, the concept of life-cycle has been foremost in scrutiny. We so readily watch this sort of spectacle every year. A great deal has been written for and about the autumnal months, much of it lyrical and sentimental. 

This is the effect of the fall of the year from the height of its summer down into the depths of its winter. The transition time. Every season has transformation, of course, but it does not escape the authors of those writings that herein lies a great analogy for our own lives. I, for example, am very much in my autumn and bordering winter. One could fall to being maudlin, be like the rain and the mists and let life become like the leaf litter... or one might opt for the brighter, crisper choice, knowing that the sun is actually ever-present and while it cannot penetrate the clouds, it can still rise in our personality and spirit. To face winter is no bad thing - it means one has lasted the full year. How long the winter will be, nobody can tell, but it too can be "still and crisp and even." If one turns one's mind to it.