Autumn Wanderings

This is just a collection of rambling thoughts I wrote down as I was "studying" outside several days ago. I just sat and wrote, so my organization, punctuation, and overall writing are a bit unclear. But hopefully you'll enjoy it anyway. Here we go.

I'm sitting at a yellow picnic table. It's too small for me. My feet are sticking out the other side. "Hello feet," I think. I wiggle my left and then my right. They make a rustle in the dry leaves. Leaves that maybe floated more than a hundred feet to be rustled my my feet. It's a nice sound, leaves rustling. It smells good too. A little sweet, kind of dry. Like sunshine. the smell of leaves brings up memories just like snow, or rain, or fresh cut grass do.
The wind is whispering to the trees now. It's saying softly, "Time for change time for change time for change." The trees whisper back, "yes yes yes yes" and drop a few more leaves. It is a still afternoon, but the silence is moving. The leaves on the trees quake, waiting their turn to fall. Fall is both an end and a beginning. When a leaf falls it is dead. It no longer pulls, water, earth, and sky together. It is just a skeleton of what is was. But by falling to the ground it begins the process of decomposition. Slowly the leaf will break apart. It will become earth. In breaking down, it will release valuable nutrients into the earth, helping other plants in their growth.
I just took off my shoes. My toes get to soak in sunshine and fresh air too. If they could talk they would say thank you.
Silence is a wonderful thing. I can hear it right now. A bee is buzzing lazily, a leaf touches the ground, a far off jet hums, the trees whisper, and I breathe.
The sun is shining big and bright. I think the sun is more mellow in the autumn. Everything is golden. It's warm and soft, baking the earth, bringing out the smells of autumn. Everything looks healthier in autumn sunshine.
Have you ever noticed how the seasons always follow the same pattern, but are always unique? Every autumn the leaves change colors, the apples ripen, days get shorter, and grass turns brown. But the season never starts on and ends the same days, the temperature is never exactly the same, and the leaves may fall sooner or later. This keeps every season delightful. Even though we expect it, it's always a pleasant surprise.


And that's when mom called me inside to do the lunch dishes.