On An Autumn Day October 10, 2011
Posted by Matt in random.Tags: Autumn, children, melancholy musings, memories
trackback
Rustling leaves awakened my subconscious mind, the slight chill in the air permeating every cell of my body, delving deep through membrane and muscle, through bone itself and into the marrow of my being. I shivered for just a moment, feeling her embrace, experiencing every pore opening and inviting the outside world. Breathing in the damp smell of unranked leaves and full and rich oxygen missing for so long in the heat, the luxuriating sense of awareness was all-consuming.
The field lay to the right of the house and I gazed across it, the weeds had long lost the green luster of summer and now waved about like strands of blonde hair in the breeze, ringed by a fiery autumnal crown, those stands of oak quickly losing their red and orange and yellow ornamentation and settling in for a long winter’s nap.
Fleeting pictures snapped and disappeared, flashing memories, trucks and games and girls, carefree days of youth past. I remembered those times, now seemingly so long ago, when I would stand in a fall breeze much like this, resplendent and tall in a jacket touting years of athletic achievement, back when the world was a book waiting to be written, the pages and pens of life idling in place, basking in the moment, excitedly wondering what lay in store.
My eyes, now tired and cynical, with lines growing in the corners, pulled at the scene, conjuring visions of times past and gone, blown away in the melancholic and ever-shifting sands of time. Alas, they were past.
Suddenly, the sound of a swinging door awakened me from my hypnotic musings. “Daddy!” called out the young girl’s voice, filled with hope and joy and wonder, “Swing me!”
I did. And it was beautiful.
This week is homecoming and Jeff is building a float right now. I was explaining to the girls what homecoming in Beebe is like. I told them about everyday having a different theme and about the pep rally and the parade. When I started talking about the homecoming court and the queen. She said “What does the queen wear?’ I said she always wears a white dress and Rachel said “What if she wants to wear something else? I said she has to wear white. Rachel wasn’t impressed. She thought a queen should be able to choose for herself. Mom