Something I wrote a couple weeks ago… probably needs a good bit of work still. Not that I’m going anywhere with it, just a bit of reflection.

Taking a walk this morning, it was as though I was seeing the soul of the land. Six months ago life was in full swing as the sun beat down, plants harvesting the energy and releasing it to the insects and animals. But today I see the paper thin remains of an oak leaf hanging on to a branch in sleep. A moss covered vine, spotted with lichen, twists and turns in a pattern I would not have seen in September. Just as our own human lives wind to an end, the land has come to its winter death. The life that is still to be seen consists mainly of nuthatches, chickadees, cedar waxwings and their friends flitting amongst the seeds and berries that will remain for them through the winter, as memories of summer youth. In spring, of course, life will return to the land. The soul that is so easily seen today will be less visible when the new forms, variations and patterns of life return. Life will continue its turn.