Every season has something unique and wonderful; an appealing point for which we wait all year with anticipation, and whose absence is often worth mourning. Especially in recent years, I really like the leaves of autumn.
I grew up in the Rodney Dangerfield of deserts. Bare dirt with something close to 2 varieties of plant: occasional 3-4 inch tall salt sage, and a short prickly pear cactus heavy on the prickle and short on the pear. You want a real nice desert, go to Arizona. A barrel cactus with those long hard red needles has real charm, and it is hard to beat a teddy bear cholla for charisma.
Being desert raised, I have very little youthful experience with tree leaves, so it was in adulthood, on my morning walk across the parking lot to the building at work, several (dare I say many?) years ago, I discovered the joy of crunchy piles of leaves. The wind would blow them into neat rows against the parking blocks and into the gutter. On any given fall morning, I will avoid the sidewalk through the parking lot. Instead you're likely to find me walking in the gutter, kicking my feet while entranced by the "shuffle-crunch-shuffle-crunch". On rare occasion, I notice other people going just a couple feet out of their way, for exactly the same little delight. Sometimes our eyes meet, and there is an instant recognition, a shared smile among autumnal sensualists.
Maybe it is all subjective, but I think this fall has been particularly well-lit, leaving my photographic side daydreaming of a free morning, fresh batteries in the camera, and memory cards waiting to be filled with images. The trees seem to have taken every opportunity to use the wonderful autumn light to show off, presenting every color from green to red to brown, sometimes all on one tree. (ah, wonderful micro-climates!)
I've often found myself staring out the window just to admire a tree across the street from my house with the richest, most beautiful orange-brown color leaves, leaves that will only become deeper and more saturated with color as they age in my memory. Mother nature won't let it last much longer, but for me, it will live on as one of my memories of autumn.
rootie
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2 comments:
> "Every season has something unique and wonderful; an appealing point for which we wait all year with anticipation, and whose absence is often worth mourning."
You have captured an important point, for me personally. Every season, like every phase of one's own life, has pluses and minuses. One key to success in life is making the most of the pluses and diminishing the minuses.
That applies especially to things we can't change: seasons and aging, for example.
My husband grew up in Michigan, and when he visits the desert, can't get enough of the crunchy feel of walking through hot-baked sand.
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