Autumnal Change

The change is upon us. Mother Nature has broken out her paintbox again to alter the canvas to golds, reds, and browns. A crispness has pervaded the air. Everything is having one last fling readying for the long winter's sleep.

I feel the shift in myself too. A quiet kind of sadness - a homesickness rising within me. But it isn't for a place, it's for a person. Fall - when my son first came forth into this world. I remember carrying him as a baby, showing him all the pretty colours. Five years later, we were joined by his sister. We would go exploring as they grew, along woodland scapes, and I would tell them the lore, told me by my Mother. Fanciful tales, like why the fox's tail is tipped in white, or stories about the fairy rings. Useful things too, how a toadstool differs from a mushroom, that moss only gross on the north side of a tree, and what is safe to eat. How to track, and how to fish without the fancy poles and such. How to make a leanto and build a campfire... So many memories evoked by the stroke of Nature's brush.

Five years ago, my son left this earth... my daughter is now a young woman with her own life.

But sometimes, in the fall against bright colours, I walk and remember.