Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Post #5 for Month: September

The sky is gray and the wind is -- not quite moaning but -- sighing through a small crack in my window. The mountains are dusted with a smidgen of snow on the very top, the fall leaves peaking through the ice crystals.

This month has flown by with unusual speed. I am aware that as I get older time has a tendency to slip faster and faster through the hourglass of life. But this September has been a blink of my eye, a breath coming through my lips, a syllable, just short of a sigh.

Ben and I are engaged in the annual semester sprint to the the finish line. This year it started earlier than usual. But I think we're getting better at running it. This is not necessarily a virtue for the future, but for the present it's what it is. Monday, in an attempt to have a family moment, we put the kids in the car, picked up some ice cream and drove up the canyon to enjoy the fall foliage.

I forget that not everyone lives right next to spectacular mountains that spire up into the blue blue sky. Fall in the East is a slow burn starting sometime in October and spreading slowly down south with it's splendid colors through the month of November and I loved it dearly. Fall here in the Rocky Mountains can be a flash in the pan, here then gone. A damp and wet Spring, like the one we had this year, usually brings out vivid brilliant color. This year is no exception.

Everyone happily finishing up their Oreo shakes, we turned onto the road that travels up through the mountains. I looked up my eyes straining for the top. There are so many things one can worry about. So many things to become tired with and of and several other prepositions, I'm sure. But just then, anything that might have been on my mind was consumed as my eyes kindled with the brightness peaking through the evergreen trees. The glorious colors took flight inside me and suddenly I was blazing up through the trees on fire with the leaves, consumed in rich color almost too bold and glorious to behold.

It was hard to come back down again, but the descent was just as wonderful.


7 comments:

  1. we are about two weeks away from our Autumnal Big Show! :-) Your words are so vivid, I could see the picture. Thank you.

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  2. Oh, man! I miss it. I second Kristin. Thanks for the vivid description.

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  3. I love our mountains. It's so nice to run to them whenever you get the urge.

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  4. We have to cherish these fall moments! Flash in the pan! Perfect description. Cherish the flash.

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  5. I love fall colors. That's what I would miss the most if we ever left our home state. No mountains or canyons, but the leaves of the forest are fabulous.

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  6. randalllhall210/04/2009 9:03 AM

    Wonderful, evocative sense of this glorious season!

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  7. Allysha, Your writing really is beautiful and you should write a book.

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