Transitions...

DIGITAL CAPTURE:  Chattahoochee Nat'l Forest; North Georgia  Nov 11th, 2009 @ 4:19pm  f5 @ 1/100 sec. ISO 200 (No Photoshop or artificial alteration) 
"The mind is insatiable for meaning, drawn from, or projected into, the world of appearances, for unearthing hidden analogies which connect the unknown with the familiar, and show the familiar in an unexpected light." - Arthur Koestler

Transitions. Those intermittent periods in our lives that often leave us empty, afraid, fearful of that which is to come, and sometimes sad to see something meaningful wane, fading into the background, perhaps never to return? Autumn's passing always leaves me somewhere found within all these symptoms of loss, seeking to focus on this period of transition from Fall to Winter with some measure of hope and a lustful creativity.

To find the temporal beauty of Autumn suddenly behind me forces me to continue to see beyond the superficial loveliness that attracts the eye and soul to the high season of Autumn's color and light. This transition period is ultimately where I stare at reality with reluctance. The brief few weeks of Autumn's adrenalin-based creativity and often high inspirational activity drains me. I find myself working at a feverish pitch, knowing the time is short for capturing the essence of the season in pictures and in words. I naturally succumb to each moment a camera is in my hand, a keyboard at my desk, or a pen finding life on paper. I relish the season as best as I can each year. And then comes that time of slowing down,  watching as the season slowly fades into another memory of another year, and another time and place.

I am now in that transition - of work, and creativity, and seeking strength of spirit to endure the season to come. And hope finds its name on my heart and mind in a more profound manner during this time. A faith that is alive, that breathes, feeds on hope. For why would we hope for what we can see? It is in what we cannot yet see that hope is alive and faith is nourished. An expectation of wonder is always there, just around the corner, leading me to avoid the trap of depression, of a vague emptiness, and a desire to escape this natural period.

I look again at the mountain fog amidst the barren trees and I have to stop and attempt to capture this transition. Upon composing this image I am most aware of the green of the kudzu vine in the foreground. It is alive with a vitality even in this dampened place of naked trees and low light. It only occurs to me when editing that I was responding to the natural cycle of life and death so beautifully found everywhere on earth, always reminding us of our own mortality, itself the transition of ultimate reality. 
Then again,  maybe its all simply a matter of all that hot coffee I extraordinarily consume during the season?