beautiful day

Those fall shadows are draping themselves across the yard. You know the ones that look just a little softer and more elegant than those in summer. The sun's glow is gentler on the eyes and, seemingly, on the plant life. Babyblue sky is the backdrop for clouds like white smoke that enhances it all. Oh, why do we love fall so ? It is the backdrop for so much that is just getting started. New school years, football season, the beginning of holidays, the starts of the Christmas lists, gathering the last of the vegetables or maybe the roses, watching the store's bedding plants being replaced with pumpkins and corn stalks, carrying lozenges in your pocket, the smell of cinnamon and clove baking.... Where did summer slip off to?
For myself, it ended with a 40th year class reunion and visit back to the town of my birth. So much to absorb in just 18 hours. Old friends to reach out to for only a moment, lives to connect with, to remember what life been like for them for the last 40 years. So much to absorb in just 4 hours. Pictures never tell the whole tale, just help us see people we missed connecting with and hugging good. Some I never recognized until the captions on the pictures told the tale. I always want to go back and start over..start over seeing them again. Then there was the shock of my hometown. So very changed. Staring into windows with businesses I never heard of, unable to locate any I recognized. Streets used to be my passage ways to the library or to the counter for takeout, now completely absorbed by other cultures and some demolished for progress sake. I found myself at a loss to belong. I knew Wolfe was right, "You can't go home again." Brought back sadness to my present home and even now have a hard time packing it away. Yet, there was good to remember...the river still runs turbulent and strong. The battlefield is still a reminder to never forget. The cotton fields were white with cotton and the bridge still takes you across the river. My old friends still have the same smiles and voices are as strong as ever with laughter and joy. Even now I can hear their voices and see them sitting and talking like they'd never been apart.
I'm better now. I've let the past be what it is... the past. I have "Bright hope for tomorrow" for old friends, old hometowns and myself.