Fall has begun. In the morning a thin feathery layer of frost spreads across my windows. My breath comes in cloudy puffs as I run. Crisp, bright air paints vivid spots of color on my cheeks. Beneath my feet, a rich crackling carpet has formed. Above my head, a heavenly dappled dome, the sun glows through leaves of gold and scarlet. And all about me, enfolding and caressing me, sweet warm, earthy air swirls in with the harvest.
Today fall was perfected into a day of warm, blissful beauty.
As my family biked up to a park near the river, my heart consigned me to driving to meet them - but as in all things it worked out for good and not evil, joy instead of sadness, and stillness amidst my busyness.
As I drove through the canyon, along the river, and over the bridges the vivid blue sky reflected in the river created a watery pathway. Along its rippling edges dark layers of rock build there way up to touch the sky and colorful trees cling to its cracks and creases, dotting it with bright splotches of crimson, chartreuse, and ocher.
As I step out of the car autumn fills my lungs, transporting me to hundred different places at once - I am flying into a giant pile of leaves, I smell that sweet bonfire and feel the apple cider clutched in my hands spreading it's warmth along my fingertips, I feel the slippery cool insides of a pumpkin entwined around my fingers. And as I make my way to the river, the rustling of furled brown leaves underfoot, reminds me once more that fall has indeed arrived. At the river's edge, thousands of minnows swirl in choreographed perfection and dropping leaves twirl and spin along with the eddies of the current. Is sit there, alternately losing myself in the in the landscape and the witty prose of my newest Jane Austen novel. As I glance up, as I have a million times already, the loveliness makes my heart swell and my mind turns to praise the Artist.
My family arrives and we settle down to a simple picnic, made delicious by the effort to reach it and the surrounding beauty. Afterwards my sister and I roll up in quilt, leaves tangle in our hair as we squirm and laugh. We grab our camera and snap pictures that send us into body-quaking spasms of laughter, slowly we settle down listening to music, swinging from giggles to reminiscence.
Slowly time moves on and my family makes there way back into town, I give them a head start giving myself a few more moments in my autumnal paradise. I lie on my back and think of little besides the clear azure sky stretched above me. Drifting between my books and daydreams I slowly pack up, lingering by the river for one last gleam of sunshine on the water and a glimpse of my dancing minnow friends. Happiness seeps through my being, joy awakening every sense.
We rendezvous downtown, strolling down the streets and wandering into the shop of choice for a resignedly jealous look at things I will never need and never afford. Slowly the scents of the surrounding restaurants coax our stomachs into suggesting dinner. We gather up our provisions and once more head to a park to soak up the last rays of sun filtering through the trees.
It was a day heart-rending happiness - a thing of beauty.
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