autumnal equinox: the turning of the seasons, the crescendo of the year

As some of you may already know, my days are consumed totally and completely by running and the exorbanent amounts of school work, so the blog posts will become fewer and farther between. For now though, I would like to comment on the changing of summer into fall. It is that time when the leaves change from their summer green into the assortment of reds, yellows, oranges, and mixtures of those colors. It is that time when you wake up, you are able to catch a glimpse of the red sun penetrating that myriad of color, making one of the most beautiful spectacles on earth. During this wonderful time, you are truly able to see the enchantment of nature in all of its glory. There is nothing that I enjoy more than just sitting in the woods and watching and listening to the world around me. Truly, it is a magical place. As I was on one of my various runs this week, I was able to just run and feel the world around me. I did not talk for most of this time, just allowed my body and my mind to take in everything around me. I was able to see everything and feel the world around me. It was just my body, in its natural state, running in the natural world. There is something magical about that fact. Most of the time on my runs, I am forced to go so fast that I am unable to appreciate what is going on around me. I usually miss out on the trees and the fallen logs, the rocks in their random patterns and the various underbrush growing along the paths. When you slow down, you are able to grasp more of the world around you, and you begin to notice things that normally would have been passed by. In our everyday lives, we rush through life without taking much notice to what is going on around us and what kind of effect our actions are having. While running, I was able to slow down my life and just watch the forest go by; absorbing it with my psyche and clinging on to those memories of a more beautiful place. When you run in a setting like that, you become a part of the environment, breathing as it breathes, feeling what it feels. This is a feeling like no other, to become one with your surroundings is a powerful and enlightening experience. Look at the trees the next time that you pass them by. They have something to share with you. "Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does Nature, because in her inventions, nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous." -Leonardo da Vinci