Winter's Nutty Kernel

“Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.”
Henry David Thoreau quotes (American Essayist, Poet and Philosopher, 1817-1862)

Fall is on its way out the door and our yard is littered with multi-colored leaves (yes, I have a date with a rake this weekend - and by rake, I do not mean a dissolute man in fashionable society). It is a strange time of year. In the midst of this massive seasonal transition, as if on cue, my entire life has turned upside down as well.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. - Helen Keller

Sometimes it is hard to let go of the past. Especially when it affords us a certain amount of comfort, stability and regularity. But this comfort can be misleading and will often prompt us to put off much needed changes in order to cling to its tattered shores.

Life does not accomodate you, it shatters you. It is meant to, and it couldn't do it better. Every seed destroys its container or else there would be no fruition. - Florida Scott-Maxwell

Ultimately, as scary as the road less traveled may be, what choice do we have but to grit our teeth, close our eyes and step off the ledge - trusting in our gut that we will hit solid ground evenutally?

To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself. ~Soren Kierkegaard

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun, and animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men; go freely with the powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and mothers, of families: read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life: re-examine all you have been told at school or church, or in any books, and dismiss whatever insults your soul.”
Walt Whitman quotes ( Poet, 1819-1892)

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven; A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck that which is planted.”
Bible quotes
I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show. ~Andrew Wyeth"Hear! hear!" screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, "winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it." ~Henry David Thoreau, 28 November 1858 journal entry
Spring, summer, and fall fill us with hope; winter alone reminds us of the human condition. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966