Fall Beginnings

Interestingly, now that school has restarted claiming that generation and their parents, RVing seems like a mobile senior community.  The faces change, but the age group is predominantly retired either by choice or necessity.  It is a friendly group for the most part, engaging whenever the opportunity presents itself.  In parks where there is no TV service, a feeling of connection to the immediate world predominates and all the wars, killing, government and crime so prevalent in the news slips away.  The barrage of commercial purveyors and pharmaceutical enticers with their endless warnings of side effects also fades taking with it the endless need to consume and the fear of identifying the most recent ache or pain.  Such is the freedom of being unattached to TV, even if it initially requires some getting used to, almost like a withdrawal process.

Living in a small space frees one from consuming in general.  Every acquisition must be weighed for its long term value and the space it will consume.  This is another way of rejecting the barrage of temptations commercial enterprises would prefer to seduce everyone with anywhere there is a mall or “Main Street” storefront.  Now the major decisions are made in the grocery store based upon space available in the refrigerator or cupboard.  Being a non-consumer by choice is a powerful freedom from the norm.

A drive into Hershey today was delightful with pumpkins lined up along the entry to a nursery and leaves floating down gently in swirls following the breezes from passing cars.  Canada geese graze in flocks along the way on the grass of parks or in freshly harvested corn fields, resting it seems from their migration southward.  In the evening and early morning these same geese can be seen overhead in V-shaped formations calling to one another as they resume their journey.  Where will they go?  Will they complete their quest?  Are the young ones strong enough to prevail on their first journey?

Homes are beginning to display fall and Halloween decorations along with fall flowers.  Lawns are mowed with fallen yellow leaves removed in the process as I pass.  There is a busyness in the community with school buses on the streets and sports of all descriptions occupying the playgrounds and sports fields.  A purpose and a familiar routine have overtaken the freedom and carefree days of summer drawing me wishfully toward school hallways and classes yet not taken.  Why not I say to myself?  Could I not learn some new and challenging thoughts for some genre I neglected before?  Surely, there are so many thoughts I yet wish to enjoy.

Such is fall.  A beginning.  A time to start all over again.  A time to prepare for winter and all the coziness that season brings when a chill is in the air and a rush of cool freshness greets the day and ends it, yet the still glorious warmth of midday remains.  This is a good time and I drink it all in, searing the scenes into my memory so I can bring them forth again whenever I wish.  This time and place yields a peace that passes all understanding, keeping my heart and mind within it.  For that I am grateful.