The leaves are starting to change. Trees near the water sources, like lakes and
ponds, are changing in patches, and random trees have also started
transitioning. Today at an outdoor
gathering, one of the nearby trees shed beautiful yellow petals of small leaves
onto unsuspecting people sitting in chairs below the branches. When a breeze came by to gently ripple the
thin limbs, autumn petals rained down onto us, covering us all momentarily with
the magic of the season.
A friend, who has long-since moved away, lamented today
about how much she misses fall, and how jealous she is of those of us living in
the northeast. I feel the same way about
her when the cherry blossoms bloom in late winter and flowers start pushing up
through the thawed soil while we are still shoveling multiple feet of snow from
our lives.
Driving home from an event in New Hampshire today, I grow
bored with the stop-and-never-go traffic on the highway. I manage to get myself over to an exit,
side-track my way east about four miles, then head south on a country back road
that parallels the interstate. The
solitude of the ride (in addition to the fact that I am actually moving) and the
beauty of the early foliage make the extra fifteen minutes of the trip worth
every millisecond.
Autumn in New England happens fast, too fast. If you don't stop and enjoy it for all its
worth, it will pass you by without a second thought. I am still regretting passing by the beautiful
sugar maple I saw in front of a school on my excursion home. If I get up that way in the next week, I will
pull my car over, stop, and take photos. Lots of photos. But if I wait much longer than a week, I may miss
some of the better colors and I may well miss fall altogether.
It's the magic that nature tricks us into believing before
pummeling us with ice, snow, and terrifyingly chilly temperatures. I'd better enjoy it while it lasts. All thirty seconds of it.
