A bit about the Autumn season

Melancholy is the season, from warm to cold

Autumn is the outcome as summer harvests and lives unfold. 

Every Autumn we celebrate harvests and participate in life and death celebrations.  Children go back to school, back to seriousness and we all stock pile our summer traditions and outdoor belongings as we get ready to hunker down for the onslaught of winter.  

There’s a sense of ending when Fall comes. Isn’t there?  We don our snuggly woolies and venture out to enjoy the spectacular changing of the leaves.  Each September I feel older; my kids are in a higher grade, and our homestead just experienced another year of decay.

Of course I’ll be participating in many fall festivals, the life/death celebrations and the giving of thanks, but I’ll also adopt a more reflective state of mind.  Maturity? Perhaps that’s it. Acceptance? Yes, Autumn is the time of year that people come to terms with the reality that they have created. Choices, whether self imposed or forced by others- come to fruition in the autumn months. Is it any wonder that this is the time selected for government elections?  Make a choice and stick with it - 

reap what you sow. 

So with the approaching chilly nights, I myself will dispose of my porch’s summer florals and replace them with Autumn dry & preserved imitations. I will vote for the term ahead for governing parties, I will plan my thanksgiving traditions and will set aside time to remember  the death of the season, the passing of many lives and the resting nature of the earth and I'll do it from the comfort of a warmed home and comfy couch.  Does red wine not taste any smoother, than in the folds of Fall?

Autumn Years Ago/Falling Forward.  Blogger's own Children when they were wee.

Remembrance Day: War Slaughter Score Cards, Silent moment for the Fallen

Remembrance Day exists because we need to validate the loss of our loved one’s lives & souls.

I had quite a few War Veterans in my family.  They were either physically scarred or empty souled. Two drank.  One had lost limbs.  All of them were damaged.  

They didn’t fight for their countries, they were forced to fight for ally countries.  They were young, scarred and didn’t have a choice.  

Growing up, I noted that Remembrance Day was somber.  It was sad. People died. 

Doing school projects about the origins of war made me question the volatile nature of political leaders.  They, for the most part are bullies.  They insist, they proclaim then an opponent disagrees, everybody picks sides and a war ensues. 

And then the men die or are forever broken.  What was to be proud in that?   The leaders keep the score cards and the glory.  As an adult I learned the importance of standing one’s ground,  but I learned it always came with consequence.  I have been on both sides of rebuttal and the best advice anyone had ever given me, was a police sergeant who told me to avoid a hostile neighbour - at all costs.  Avoidance of course does not get rid of the problem, as I have learned with unreconciled relationships, for there is nothing more empty then “pretending to be civil”.  

Why must we have war?  History shows that it is not always successful. 

Remembrance day isn’t about the battle.  It’s the time taken to feel sorrow for the pawns that fell by the wayside, to acknowledge that they mattered, their spirit is cherished and that they are not just a check on a political score card.  And this dear friend, is how the custom of Remembrance Day - came to be. 

   May all souls have peace. 

Two Finnish born brothers who became  Canadian Immigrants.

My Great Uncles Tauno & Tysto Lehikoinen (or to us - Tony & Ty) 

with my father & uncle (as children)

Ty served in WW2.  

Tony also served in WW2 & Korean War.  Neither had any children of their own.