The Autumnal Equinox is here, Summer has ended. The days are getting noticeably shorter. There is a coolness to the nights promising an end to the stifling humid summer air. Swimming pools have closed, school buses are rolling and the rhythm of daily life is settling in.
With every seasonal change a sense of anticipation rises. What will the season hold for us? Change drives us forward or dumps us backwards. Are we prepared? Autumn is historically a season of preparation. It is a reminder that nothing stays the same and darker, colder days lie ahead. If we want to survive them, we must prepare.
The Neanderthal survived in a much harsher climate than we have faced. The changing of the seasons held life and death for them. To live, preparation had to be thorough and focused on pure necessity. Warmth, some type of food preservation, and shelter that could withstand the bone-chilling cold of their winters. The taming of fire and the shelter of limestone caverns made survival possible. The preparation for the long cold winter carried out over the warmer seasons made survival probable. Without a deep intrinsic knowledge and understanding of the world and environment they inhabited, they could not have possibly lived the centuries they did.
Autumn is a season of transition, a time of evaluating where we have been, how successful our efforts have been and where we are headed and if we have what we need to get there and survive it. We still have time to get things in good order before winter. In my lifetime this season of transition has taken on more of a mental and emotional flavor centered on celebration of the harvest season without actually having to physically harvest anything.
As we move through this season of transition, it would be in our best interest to understand the world we live in and see it through eyes unclouded by the miasma of conflicting information birthed by conflicting ideologies. Reality is where we live. Reality is what we walk into when we set aside our TV and devices and interact with our physical environment. It is our neighborhood, our interactions with folks, our jobs, our families, our churches our communities. Reality is where we shop for food, where we toil, where we hug one another and laugh and cry.
The cold, dark days of winter are coming. We must prepare our hearts and minds. During this glorious season of cooler weather, hay rides, pumpkin spice everything and beautiful displays of color in our mountains let us embrace the change that is inevitable and claim it. We have the most influence on what is ours, this time and season belongs to us!
Theoriginalneanderthal 