Autumn's Second Wind

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."~Albert Camus

Since childhood, Autumn has been my favorite season of the year and one of the times I am most grateful for living in Upstate New York. The leaves have slowly begun to turn from thier summer hues to bright gold, red, orange, brown and yellow. While I love and internally romanticize a future out West in Big Sky Country, for now, I fear I would miss the change of seasons that can be calendered by the changing leaves...

As a child growing up in the city, Autumn would signal the meeting of my neighborhood friends and I in the street with our rakes to designate who's house we would be "building" our annual leaf pile. (We would then collect them in front of the chosen spot, raking leaves from every yard in a eight house range. (Every house, that is, except Mr. Brengard's, who's impeccibly manicured lawn would usually be devoid of any leafy ammo for the stockpile by the time we could get to it.)

Now an adult with children of my own, the challenge is to find the time and energy to get outside and walk the dog through leaves, travel to the parks to gauge the change foliage, and tossing the pigskin around naked trees.

Time certainly flies and while I'm tired, it is not yet the autumn of my life. The Fall rains, winds, and leaves have provided me with yet another second wind.

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!