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Reflections September 2012

Life Is for Living

A Love Affair with Autumn

By Neil Wyrick

Ah, the smells and sights of this special season. The vigor that exploded around me was like a living thing. And my little-boy legs would run and jump, sending a cascade of color in all the directions that leaves can find to go.

I love Florida but I miss the fall. I do have some trees in my front yard that drop their leaves in an imitation of what is happening in the north -- but that is all it is, and a poor imitation at that. These Florida leaves turn brown on their limbs and then drop silent and colorless to the ground. They never exhibit any of the parade of colors from God's palette that the colder climes unleash. They do not smile brightly in the sunrise and sunset brightness. They simply show their pessimistic weariness and quit their postings on the limbs.

Not so in my native Virginia. Reaching into my memory bank I remember how in my boyhood days the leaves actually seemed to giggle when they let go to flutter down. The air was crisp and both the ground and the trees were all ablaze. So much so that sometimes I would feel like I should call a fireman.

And when I would wander through forest 1 on the way to forest 2 the leaf-crunching sounds beneath my feet would scare and scatter all the forest creatures. To me they were like tiny percussion instruments keeping tempo to so many other forest sounds.

Ah, the smells and sights of this special season. The vigor that exploded around me was like a living thing. And my little-boy legs would run and jump, sending a cascade of color in all the directions that leaves can find to go. So many directions, it seemed they needed a control tower to monitor their flight.

The leaves were so many things to me -- even ballet dancers, choreographed by mother nature as they pirouetted to the music of the wind.

And only once, a tiny miracle, a rainbow came down and touched earth no more than a few yards from where I stood. And the colors of the rainbow were so at home with the colors all around its feet. And I laughed out loud with my little boy laugh that added such joy to the scene.

I actually thought of fall as a giant party to which everyone was invited. A time when all is aglow as if lit by a thousand candles. Despite all the presents given, the beauty of it was quite enough. I saw autumn as having a handsome, pleasant face. It never frowned at me and I never frowned back.

Were I there now, in this my 83rd year, I might not leap and run as once I did. But I know I would move faster than before I breathed those wondrous 9th, 10th and 11th months’ collection of special air.

So to the most of you who now know fall as a reality, glory in it. Grin at it. Walk on a lakeshore and watch the water double your pleasure with its reflections. Harvest the special joy. And enjoy the season big time. How can you do otherwise as you walk beneath an autumn sky?

 

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