The end of some things...?

The year is beginning to wind down, though the sun is still warm and the days gracious and the wildlife active.  Despite the summer fun still to be had, I at least can feel the turning of the season, the hush that is just starting to creep into view, like a backdrop poorly-lit.  It might be my imagination, to be sure, but I have learned that such things are too easily disregarded in the full light of day, usually at one's peril.  So I persist in my conviction, even as I enjoy the season and make use of the time available.  What else is there to do?
My wife and I were discussing things the other night, and I expressed how odd it was to be here, finally, with 2012's end in sight, this thing that has at least partially informed a great many of our decisions for the last 14 years, ever-present, always hovering at the back of our minds, whispering 'Don't forget...'.  And here we are, the last few months before the culmination of all those plans, endless discussion, miles of research, and several relocations.
It is a strange feeling in a strange place, but we have lots to do and to occupy our time.  Our son just turned a year old, and we are having such a blast with him that the world outside has lost some of its menace, at least for the present.  That sounds a little weird, for there is much to be concerned with beyond the walls of our life, but so much of what we might face is either far away, or imaginary, or false, or a contrived scheme to make people afraid of each other, that we simply don't have the inclination to worry about it.  What will be, will be, and there is little we can do to arrest or divert it.  We can only do the best we can, for ourselves and our son.  He will have to deal with in fact what his parents have spent a long time dealing with in theory, and so his path will look very different from ours.  We are intent, however, on ensuring that he will have the tools he needs to respond to the coming changes in a positive and useful way.  Indeed, we have already begun this process...
Nevertheless, we are increasingly concerned by the things we see around us, and in my darker moments I notice potentials that give me pause when I consider the future.  So much of what is happening is needless, and there are so many things afoot that are considered problems and threats that are not, in fact, either, while the real threats go unremarked and unexamined.  It is these things that will prove our undoing, societally speaking, since they constitute overwhelmingly the power to destroy the whole of human artifice, or at the very least, to render what might remain irrelevant and without potential.
Perhaps the Solstice this year will pass like any previous one, without event of note.  That will not, however, clear the slate; it will simply mean the timetable has shifted, that the equation has been re-balanced with different terms.  The systemic, endemic, eternal problems besetting humanity will not have been resolved, but their unfolding merely re-scheduled.  We know this, and we are saddened by this, but we will continue to love our son, each other, and the Earth, for as long as we are able.  For the rest, each shall be addressed in its turn, according to need, as required, in a calm, precise, military manner.  And that shall have to be sufficient.