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fill out into maturity. When one lives as suggested by Thoreau as children do naturally, one achieves that which he urges, to "resign yourself to the influences of each."

There comes a time when one is sufficiently mature to be reflective and has the insight to begin to see that each person is but a part of the whole. Time changes, and in this alone is Einstein's theory proven, for as a young child, the concept of time and its passage is different than when one is older. The proof is in your memory, for you will remember the eternity that stretched from Labor Day until Christmas when you were young. And from one birthday to the next, several eternities. I do believe that I was six years old for at least five years, or so it seemed. But having reached maturity, nature turns to the harvest, that time of season to reap.

It is a time of year when a fawn is mature enough to be weaned, and it understands that it is part of a herd, a group larger than itself. In the autumn of our lives, our world has grown. One understands we are only a part of it, not central to it. Here is where the relativity of time really enters. In adulthood, the days click by like telephone poles viewed from inside a fast-moving train. What once seemed eternity, for example the time period between Labor Day and Christmas, is now no more than the blink of an eye. I know, I have seen the change in the relativity of time in my life, some natural changes and some man made. But as I write on this fall day, I just know that the local stores are gearing up for the Christmas season. Each year it is earlier than the year before, an indirect commentary on the way men live their lives. Some live in the future, others in the past, both unable to live each season as it passes.

Overly focusing on the future or dwelling on past events, we miss today. That doesn't happen in nature. The bee knows instinctively to gather nectar from flowers while they are blooming in order to have honey for the winter. Without prompting a plant knows to redirect nutrients and water to the blooming flowers away from the leaves to produce as many seeds as possible. In the fall, a black bear, living in the present moment, gorges herself for her period of hibernation. Why is it that all of nature, especially in the fall, is so able to live in the present moment, while men and women dread the future, remember the good old days?

One of the most often used quotes is attributed to Thoreau, "most men lead lives of quiet desperation and

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