By Scott A. Yeager for GANT News
Whether you live in the river valleys common to the West Branch of the Susquehanna, the tranquil Clarion, the ever-lively Sinnemahoning or the ancient Allegheny, the turbulent interplay between air and water in the Pennsylvania Wilds is something to behold in the autumn season.
Waters still warm from summer’s touch clash with air that streams cool and low from climates further north, seeking to press their advantage in ushering in a time of glistening frost.
Fluffy clouds of tangerine, ruby and sapphire are soon edged out of sight by those of lavender and slate, hovering overhead like the cold and muddy paws of some ominous black bear, eager to devour the remaining fruits of the season in preparation for its time of hibernation.
As the winds and waters ply their craft, our mountains, hills and forests are transformed. The vibrant chalkboard in nature’s classroom will soon be whisked clean.
Autumn is a time for new lessons, a time ripe for new knowledge, for new experiences in the Pennsylvania Wilds.
The Ancient Celts had a term, eolas (pronounced E-o-LAS) that helps us comprehend the value inherent in a season of renewed purpose.
In a word, eolas is knowledge; and as we all know, knowledge is the currency that spends everywhere, even in the world’s wild places.
The temptation that many humans immersed in learning risk is a state that is contrary to the natural order, one that is adverse to nature itself.
Eolas, nature’s knowledge and the gift of living in or visiting the Pennsylvania Wilds, is akin to the winds and waters that sculpt our land.
Eolas is a living knowledge, an ever-changing thing, one that suspends the self in search of something superior to mere human understanding.
Eolas is something thought, as much as it is something that is felt. It closes that great divide between what is human and what is nature.
Through eolas, we learn how to live in accord with our world. We learn to be still, to listen. We see the magnificent in the microscopic and are humbled by the majesty of things far grander than ourselves.
We come to the realization that we were never really separate from the Wilds. The Pennsylvania Wilds is not merely a place, a dot on someone’s map.
Through eolas and this season of transformation, we come to appreciate that both the residents and visitors to this region of our Commonwealth are connected.
There are many who think of autumn in the Pennsylvania Wilds as being an end to something splendid, vibrant and warm. Every end is but a new beginning. That is nature’s way, our way.
Our slate is clean, the season speaks to us of renewal. As the winds strip the crisp colors from our hardwoods and begin to bend the brown stalks of the plants and grasses that comforted our warmer days take heart, new knowledge awaits us in the coming days.
Use this time to explore, to learn, to experience something new – in yourself, in others and in the Wilds that we all share. That, my friends, is what makes autumn – this time of renewal and of learning new things – a blessing to us all.