Red Leaves..., Fall Song...

Red Maple Leaves in September

Look at these leaves.., already turned to their blood-red Autumn hue, look at the sky, cold, white as a starched linen sheet, like it could snow.  Early this year, but beautiful all the same.

Fall Song ~ by Mary Oliver

Another year gone, leaving everywhere

its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply

in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island

of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

Except underfoot, moldering

in the black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries ---roots and sealed seeds

and the wanderings of water.  

This I try to remember when time's measure

painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing

to stay ---how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever

in these momentary pastures.

I have been watching the birds..

We worried so much about missing the birds at our old house..., but there was no need, I have been watching birds for the last week come in droves...  We now have six feeders up and I am having to fill them up everyday.

Norther Flicker

Downy Woodpecker

Busy little Nuthatch

I realize that I could quite easily, stop, do nothing but watch these little feathered wonders all day long..., what a blissful day that would be!

I have been slowing down for the last week, is it my age?  I ask myself..., but I think more than anything its the change in the seasons.  Today is Fall equinox..., so its official no more summer... With the recent changes in temperature, and general feel of all things outdoors,  I find myself wanting to go to bed sooner, get up later, and I feel hesitant to start the day...  

If I was a bear, I would be getting ready to hibernate...  

Friendship...

Dazzling September Flowers

I recently came upon this quote, "Friends are God's way of apologizing for our families," written by "unknown,".... Whoever this unknown person is/was, clearly knew what a true gem a good friend can be..

I have been truly blessed in my lifetime to have a few very special, close friends, and I wouldn't be where I am today without them.  Their love, support and honesty have bolstered me through the good, the bad and the ugly, and thankfully continue to do so.

Today I had the pleasure of spending some time with an old neighbor friend of mine whom I'd met when we moved into our first house, we'd both just had our second babies,( both girls) and instantly became good friends to each other.   Over the years, we saw one another go through struggles and joys, spent easter in the company of each others families, ate meals together, experience family loss,  book groups, illness and  each others divorce...

We lost touch when they sold their house and she moved away to a nearby town...,  over the years I would occasionally bump into her at a local restaurant or the grocery store.., standing with shopping carts straddling the isles trying to catch up on each others news - very unsatisfactory, but it was what we had in the moment...

Today however she came to lunch and got to see our new home... She pulled up in the driveway, grinning from ear to ear...here she was,  the same sweet person I'd known, counted on as confidante, friend and sister... just like all those years ago...  the years had not changed a thing. I believe that when we are with real friends, there is a great opportunity for deep healing and self kindness, as they reflect to us the love of who we truly are.

Life is good.