The Crown of Autumn

An autumn tale

A night spent to interpret your own being and to search the moon and sun of your inner sky.

Enraptured, you gaze out from the balcony: everything is black, lit up by lightnings breaking in with a thunderous roar; trees shake for the angry winds blowing against the windows.

A lost bird is looking for shelter in the branches of an old pine tree.

In the forest there's a rustle, like chatty spirits, and the drumming of wings of owls coming out of their nests. The woodland faeries appear: dressed of leaves, their hair and eyes are of the color of chestnuts and autumn. If you are lucky, you can spot them giving the shades appropriate for the occasion to the wood. The usual latecomer squirrel hastens to go back to its lair, and mother rabbit calls her little one (he's been out too long, the rascal).

If you are very alert, you will even see mushrooms popping up from the soil, wet for the constant rain.

Of course you'll need to wear a raincoat and wrap up warm, but remember: rainy days hide wonders never found in the sunny ones.

The pixie ran through the raindrops. Shiny pearls bounced around him when his foot landed on a leaf. Pitter-patter... He jumped light and smiling, concealed by a cloud made of water jewels, more beautiful than any human jewel.

Everything was vibrant with life in the wood, blowing in the late September wind and absorbing the liquid nourishment coming from the clouds. Wild animals, safe and warm in their lairs, pulled their heads out and twitched their noses, sniffing a pungent odour of moist forest floor. Dirt, leaves, chestnuts, mushrooms... How many secrets and treasures!

The pixie kept bouncing, leaving behind every sadness, doubt, regret or grudge, any bond imprisoning the soul in a dark shell and stopping it from flying away. He looked at human troubles from above, with smiling eyes.

Only he and similar beings knew how to live in the moment, twitching their noses to sniff the future like the forest animals.

Because he could see and listen, he was aware. Rejoicing for nothing but the present, with no ties and no bounds with the past, a soft touch that gave him the gift of experience.

Humans rarely detected his presence.

Just a few of them, with a pure heart and a mind free from prejudices, sensed the energies around them and could twitch their nose and prick up their ears.

All the others lived their lives. The beings dressed in flowers and leaves looked at them with benevolent irony, while they ran after silly things, judging and valuing a fleeting appearance, destined not to last.

These were deaf to the call of nature.

Too uncomfortable with silence and emptiness, anxious when they slowed down, they found they didn't know what to do and how their life was meaningless.

The more impoverished their spirits are, the more they hoarded sounds, objects and people.

The pixie arrived at the highest point of a spruce branch and started swinging up towards the sky and down towards the lake that looked like a mirror with a submerged forest in it.

On one side tremulous water lilies were floating above the ripples, like shiny, dark green bases of a moving garden. The pixie couldn't resist and jumped, landing softly. All around him tall beeches and spruces stood up against the sky while lower trees by the shore stretched their branches to touch the water and entangled them with bushes of white crested plants: a barrier wall hiding that corner. You had to go through it and get scratched.

A frog jumped next to him.

- It's such a humid day, isn't it? Perfect for frogs. - She croaked chatty.