This morning I stepped outside in the rain to grab the green trash pail from the curb and dump the rainwater that had collected in the green chairs Matt and I like to sit in at night and talk. As I did I noticed that a lot of leaves from the neighbors trees were flooding the ground with color. I looked up at the large pecan tree we have in our backyard and watched as a few ugly, brown leaves made their way to a wet welcome below. I paused a moment. Thinking...about everything....about nothing.
Fall has never really been a enjoyable season for me, but more of an expectation of things to come in my life. The weather is a great relief from the heat we've been hit with the summer months, but hard to watch the leaves giving up color before giving up the will to fight.
Our yard, front and back, is inhabited by many squirrels that are constantly picking the pecans out of the trees, crunching through the shells and discarding them on the ground below. At any given time outside you can hear their teeth rapidly make waste of something I would have to get after with a nut cracker. Everyone is preparing for winter. Even the trees are discarding their leaves to turn inward and make it through the next season.
Across the street, a gust of window has brought with it a down pour of bright yellow leaves. I watch them spin crazily across lawns, some get caught on roofs, others make it in to sister trees. The majority find rest on the ground, to either be trampled or racked, once the rain has cleared and things begin to dry.
Fall is messy, the weather is up and down, leaves are making havoc of every one's dwelling. Now that it's rained, they'll be wet crumpled leaves sticking to the kids shoes as they come in and out, just a little piece of Fall trying to make it's way into my living room. No doubt the dog will enjoy playing with the wet vegetation, but she'll be the only one.
Fall is a synonym for Life. Up and down, always to be cleaned up, just so leaves that lasted longer, had more fight in them, can fall on fresh ground before they get swept up. A mess that sticks and clings to you, as you move through season after season.
1 comment:
Good post, Jess. You're right...the trees turn inward.
Everybody needs to, sometimes, and always after a particularly brilliant display.
I commented to Bruce this week that I like Spring and Fall...they're both respite seasons, in different ways, and seasons of anticipation.
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