Well here we are, dear reader, floating right along this ever moving river of time. It was only about a week ago in my last article that I was going on about the end of Summer. But before that issue got to print, Fall suddenly fell upon us.
There’s a crisp chill in the morning air here these days. Frost can be seen on roofs, the desert floor and on window panes. The time has come to throw another cover on the bed and to dig out our Winter clothes.
Yes, I’m afraid, our endless Summer has finally ended. And it seems as though someone flipped the switch from hot to cold.
Most of the leaves are still clinging to the anchors of their steadfast trees. They are putting on a changing colorful show for their grand finale. They brighten up our landscape with a last wondrous glow before they fade to dark brown, crumble and blow away in the Autumn desert wind.
But they’ll return again next Spring, new, fresh and green, or at least their descendants will.
There’s a grey kitty who has decided to make his home on the front step of my apartment. He is there morning, noon and night. He was fearful and standoffish at first, but he warmed up to me quite a bit after I offered him some treats. I call him Whiskers.
His pal Charlie, who so often tags along with him, is an older fluffy, male, orange feline. Charlie is our community cat, ever so mellow, and all my neighbors love him. He and Whiskers are best friends.
I sit on my front step at times in the afternoon and hang out with them. They know that they’re safe and welcome now that I no longer have a dog.
It’s good to have friends, even if they are four legged furry creatures who like to be with me and say very little other than an occasional “Meow”.
We’ve had snow on our nearby summits already and we are getting ready for what may be a long cold winter.
There’s something new in our little town of late... Scarecrows!
There’s one standing every few yards all along our tree lined main street, which is Highway 93.
Our town spirit is on display during patriotic holidays. That’s when that same half mile or so stretch is lined with American flags. And during Christmas, beautiful brightly decorated Christmas trees are to be seen in the same location in the middle of our town.
This year, someone decided to create a Scarecrow for Halloween and the idea caught on. I think the core of the community promoted it as a project and so many others got into the act.
Each human-like structure is secured to a lamp post. And each one is a unique, individual, outlandish stick figure with tattered clothes fluttering in the breeze, wearing a facemask and beaming it’s special scarecrow charm.
I wish I could take pictures and include them for you to see in this article.
I’m sure the kids view them with great delight. Each figure is a mixture of scary, humorous, mischievous, spontaneous community artistic creation.
On the other side of the coin, when you watch the evening news, I’m afraid you don’t get a true picture of the world we actually live in. It’s really not all doom, gloom, danger, crime and tragedy as so often shown on TV.
There’s life as we know and live it in our day to day existence. It may not be very exciting and dramatic as in action packed movies. But it’s our life and we experience it as meaningful, personal and special.
So seasons change. The river of life flows ever along. We grow older as our world grows cold.
But only for a while. There’s a fresh new Spring awaiting a little bit ahead. New leaves, baby birds and wildflowers will greet us with smiles once more as the cycle turns.
And warm Summer days will follow as surely as night follows day. Sunshine, warmth and brightness is in our future.
Gloom, doom and danger appear to me to be more of a media creation.
There is goodness and beauty all around in our environment. Most of it, we seem to take for granted. But some of it we have to acknowledge as golden. There are smiles, laughter, cheerful greetings, friendly kittens, the cuteness of kids and the very occasional astonishing scarecrow!
