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Sitting on a bench on the side of a canal in the heart of Amsterdam, I look at the beauty and sadness of autumn.
Dry rolling autumn leaves make a crackling and shuffling sound as they are driven by the whispering wind over the pavement of the city.
In the stagnant city and the stagnant world, the shuffling and crackling sounds like a threat to the things that may happen. I am the lone witness to that phenomenon, sitting on a bench on the side of a canal.
The threatening dark clouds accentuate the atmosphere that hangs over that part of Amsterdam. I look into those clouds and have the feeling that it might start raining soon.
In my reflections, I see autumn as a period in which nature retreats. Despite the splendor of colors that autumn brings, my feeling is very restless. I also see in it the unpredictable things that this time will bring us. The unrest that haunts this world. War, political turbulence, economy, new epidemic, climate and an impending nuclear winter and much more.
While the silent world listens to the violent wars that are now taking place, the dry leaves shuffle further over the pavement of the silent city. My reflective thoughts shuffle along with the leaves towards the still water of the canal where I sit.
