Fall in the Laurel Highlands

Every year I say it, and every year it proves true: October's beauty is in its transience.

Fleetingness makes it lovely, the short-lived colors, the rich scent of fallen leaves, the perfect temperatures.  Like all things beautiful, it passes so quickly.

In their transience, the bright days of October whisper to us of finitude, reminding us that we are mortal and destined to return to the dust of the earth--from which we come.

It's a beautiful melancholia.  But more than that: There is an awareness of eternity in all our mindfulness of finitude. 

I'm not talking about heaven, though an October day in the Laurel Highlands is a pretty close approximation.  No, I'm simply talking about the timelessness of the great unknown abyss that surrounds us on all sides: eternity, the absence of time.

It's very calming to touch those things that bring eternity to mind, like an autumn leaf. 

Sections of the old PW&S Railroad are still visible in this part of the forest.  That's the "Pittsburgh, Westmoreland and Somerset Railroad."  In places, it's a trail.  In other places, the tracks just disappear into the forest.  A nice reminder of eternity.