Peacetime

Nature, functioning as it should. The hills of Virginia are more peaceful than the residents know. Nature battles are over leaves and mowers and weeds. Short weeds. Beauty is on overdrive here. 

It's a glorious place to visit. I find my heart having trouble staying where I am and fully enjoying what is around me. I snuggle into my jacket and dart off to chilly rooms in temporary housing in tsunami-stricken towns. Or hear about weedwhacking battles and remember sad housewives from the nuclear evacuation zone describing visiting their abandoned house to retrieve one bag of belongings, and commenting that the weeds were as high as their head and as thick as their thumb. The government-enforced two-hour timeframe gave them no time to tidy up their yard. I went to a very normal small-town fall festival with all sorts of craft booths, and wished I had an apartment to decorate. And flitted off into wondering what can be done for the ladies along the ravaged coastline who need to make a cozy nest for their families this winter. What would they like? Could we make something together?

Even though I'm not staying put very well, it's so good to see what I'm seeing. Driving North from North Carolina to Virginia and watching the trees transition from late summer to early fall. Walking through the festival, smelling kettle corn and funnel cakes and barbecue pork. Seeing vast quiet pastures. Greeting neighborhood dogs. Enjoying the first fire of the season. Pulling my flannel pajamas out of my suitcase. 

It's possible. Some of those towns in Northeast Japan are big enough to extend inland, and have sections that were spared. They managed to continue their festivals this year. Strictly coastal villages have other things on their mind right now. But it's possible. The government has released the 20 to 30 kilometer evacuation zone around the nuclear plant for repopulation. Some will return to restart their towns. It'll take time, but it's possible. 

So as you do your seasonal things, please take time to notice them and enjoy them. Your decorations are different from theirs. Your meat choice and barbecue sauce choice doesn't match theirs. Their background music ain't Virginia bluegrass. I can't describe your treats to them any better than theirs to you. But pray for their small-town normal seasonal stuff. City stuff too. Whatever you see and wonder about. 

Enjoy your season. Happy Autumn.