By Neal Lemery
The first day of the true fall rains found me sitting out on the covered deck, with a cup of tea and my favorite sweatshirt, to ward off the pleasant chill in the air that the rain front brought. The distant hills were shrouded in fog, mist, and rain showers, all in varying shades of gray.
The air was still, fresh and clean. The birds were now quiet, finding shelter in the trees, away from the falling wet. The last few days had been noisy with birdsong, and their hunt for food before the rains began. Today, the birds were calling me to be like them: silent, finding stillness, and to simply be.
I’d brought a book, but found myself wanting quiet and idleness, just being present as the new season took root, my mind needing to be empty and still, and just to be in nature, and the stillness of the morning. I took a deep breath, filling myself with the sensations of the natural world, and the simple peace all around me. I realized I had been missing that, and not taking the time to just be, and to experience what is always around me. A necessity, something I had been ignoring.
My work brain rationalized this quiet time as a time of restoration, renewal, contemplation, and a rejuvenation. I pushed aside thoughts of my to do list, realizing this was “my time”, space for quiet and renewal, and emptiness that needed to be here now. I had lessons to learn, in the quiet and in the sounds of the falling rain, and the smell of new wetness, and Autumn.
I needed to reconnect, to experience the land, the sky, the new rain. Simple experiences, but profound, cleansing; something needed by my soul.
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a commodity to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” –Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac (1949)
“One of our responsibilities as human people is to find ways to enter into reciprocity with the more-than-human world. We can do it through gratitude, through ceremony, through land stewardship, science, art, and in everyday acts of practical reverence.” –Robin Wall Kemmerer
“Practical reverance.” Yes, the prompt for this day. Too often, I am impractical, too focused on chores and “to dos” and not taking time to just be, to observe, feel, and absorb. I need time to think, to contemplate, to simply be.
I am part of the land. I strive for a mindset of being in community. Noticing.
Seeing possibilities, liberating nature to do her job, restoring relationships.
We are nature, too. Our task is to care for the land, to strive for stewardship, for transformation.
I realize I need to let go, give back, to heal myself, to reconnect, and to learn again to love where I am, and what is in my world.
I refocus, recharge, renew. With gratitude and with awe and respect, and renewal.
10/26/2026
