Just as the joyous hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving fades, so does Mother Nature’s kaleidoscope of foliage and days of autumn reverie. Hearts and minds of young and old turn to real and imaginary winter moods. Christmas draws nigh and brings hope of both renewed earthly joys and spiritual rebirth.
© Ilija Lukić 2021
People from every walk of life, nationality and spiritual persuasion join city residents in kicking off America’s time-honored Thanksgiving and Christmas season, during Holly Days 2021 festivities in the streets of historic Pittsboro, North Carolina USA.
Crisp late-autumn airs carry aromas of food and sweet fare, while restive children enjoy train rides and various bounce houses. Local school concert bands and dance studio groups provide entertainment on an outdoor stage. The town youth theater ensemble dazzles revelers with one act of a musical production.
The annual town gathering culminates with Santa’s arrival on a dusting of snow flurries. Minutes later he kicks off the season of joy and light from the late-Victorian portico of the historic Chatham County Courthouse by illuminating our town Christmas Tree at the city center traffic roundabout.
© Ilija Lukić 2021
Life shadows mark time
Sorrow fades from memories
Swan song rules the heart
© Ilija Lukić 2021
Earlier today I have an illuminating session with my therapist, Mother Nature. She insists on a Rorschach Test. I willingly submit to a deep-dive into my personality, emotional functioning and thinking patterns, while on a meander down the Pond Trail at Seaforth Point on Jordan Lake. We make ten stops designed to reveal the innermost recesses of my humanity by way of verbalized, off-the-cuff perceptions of creation. Most meaningful is my perception of two hearts beating as one I chance upon at a secluded, woodland pond. “Voilà earthling bosomed in my autumn splendor,” confides Mother Nature in a whisper, “this is a telling confirmation of your attraction to and love of the natural world.”
© Ilija Lukić 2021
Many are familiar with Aesop’s fable of “The Tortoise And The Hare.” Here in Chatham County, North Carolina we have the fabled Chatham Rabbit, a cousin to Aesop’s hare of yore. But these days, the only races that give our critter notoriety involve evasive maneuvers to pursuits from hunters.
However, widespread reports of our rabbit challenging Rainbow Trout to speed contests in and along the Sissipahaw River exist in the annals of our county. Of course said contests pitted two speedsters against one another, albeit in vastly different environments. The official proclamation of the winner in “The Rainbow Trout And Chatham Rabbit Race” remains hidden in some dusty corner of historical archives.
Notwithstanding the lessons brought by Aesop’s tortoise, modern life insists on pitting human speedster against human speedster in mind numbing evolutions of time.
© Ilija Lukić 2021
Graybeard walks with a stoop;
Cherished nestlings flew the coop,
Now soul needs chicken soup
© Ilija Lukić 2021
When the natural world opens portals to music of the universe, that which lies in wait behind your joys and sorrows gives you reason to ponder your existence.
© Ilija Lukić 2021
Treed slopes catch their breath
Autumn’s light warms heart and soul
Hued breath keeps frost at bay
© Ilija Lukić 2021
Named after a small, native tribe of North Carolina the Sissipahaw River is the chief head stream of the Cape Fear River watershed. Now lost in the folds of time, in the early 1700s the tribe hunted and farmed a large fertile area just upstream near today’s village of Saxapahaw. Close your eyes and echoes of Sissipahaw traders moving downstream on watercraft with goods precious to coastal tribes top off the autumnal ambience. God’s in his Heaven, all’s right with the world.
© Ilija Lukić 2021
Winds of change push misgivings through hometown.
Be not content friend and compatriot
With illusions of a world turned upside down,
Where ships of fools ride herd on freedom’s chariot.
The chariot dubbed free will, it's not too late,
Give it full rein and right our ship of state.
© Ilija Lukić 2021
Though time hangs heavy on gossamer strings,
As autumn mists becloud summer reverie
And winter’s teeth coax doldrums into things,
Let spirit soar with joy, live fearlessly.
Living fearlessly means accepting your abilities and limitations, then befriending fear.
© Ilija Lukić 2021
Autumn lies in wait
Summer bids fond fare-thee-well
Crisp air dispels blues
© Ilija Lukić 2021
I walk through autumn wood with restless heart
And without plan to gain balance of mind,
Till sunlit arbor looms like work of art
Where I can reflect and leave unrest behind.
© Ilija Lukić 2021
Profound music of silence and echoes of the divine within solitude, but above all stillness of soul shape mankind’s triumvirate of serenity and bond to the eternal.
© Ilija Lukić 2021
One key responsibility of a free people is to question authority. This obligation includes realization and acceptance of our own ignorance as the first step towards truly understanding and ultimately resolving differences. As we deliberate an issue, we have to stay mindful that any surrender of basic human rights is a most insidious form of subjugation.
© Ilija Lukić 2021
When fathomless misery holds dark sway,
People with sunshine in their hearts declare
Come what may, let light bring to knees dismay,
For then souls transcend foul pits of despair.
© Ilija Lukić 2021
The substance of reflections on water is akin flights of imagination, which often seem fanciful, yet when viewed through the prism of life experiences bring into being each person’s unique understanding of the real world. Each person’s perception is as distinctive as their essence, even though the substance of the reality they profess is one and the same.
© Ilija Lukić 2021
