Peering through the glass door, I saw the rain from the night had blanketed the lawn with a layer of beautifully strewn leaves. They were lying in shapes of what one could imagine must have been a silhouette of the shadow of the trees above during a hot, July afternoon.
A calmness washed over me as I felt a sense of familiarity which brought comfort. It transported me back to childhood days where walking a sidewalk covered in leaves was a pleasure. Whether the leaves were pressed together from rain, or crackled under my feet from dryness it mattered not. I was exhilarated by their presence.
Having moved at a young age from a neighborhood with no trees to an old neighborhood lined with huge, old, beautiful trees, I felt like I’d entered a wonderland. Squirrels ran about on errands unknown and unfathomed, stopping periodically to rise up with a nugget of food to savor and just as quickly as they’d paused, they were off again to the next task.
Adults grumbled as if a plague had fallen, I suppose because they saw work instead of beauty. I quickly became a happy volunteer to rake leaves with the understanding I could play in them before bagging them away for disposal. Not only at my own home, but I volunteered to rake leaves for neighbors who looked at me with suspicion that my true desire was a coin or two and when I declined payment, they looked at me; studying my face to see why I didn’t appear to be as daft and they thought I was.
Thinking back brings a private smile to my face as I revisit a time living in my memory.
filed under @sagegrass because i said that