Fleeting

This is the large Silver Maple behind our home. This tree shades our home every late afternoon and evening all summer long, and that makes dining on the deck one of my favorite things. Another one of the best things about this tree is that it turns golden in the fall. But before the leaves turn golden, they turn a purple-y red. The dark color is fleeting and doesn't last long, so if you aren't paying attention, you miss it. But boy, is it pretty!

Once the leaves have graced the air with their golden aura, they fall. And it's all a fleeting process. Especially if the wind blows!

And this picture doesn't do justice to the sheer magnitude of the PILES that happen. This year, they were particularly dry and crunchy. Which is really one of the best sounds of the season! Sometimes, Jeff can keep up with the leaves by mowing with the mulching mower late into the fall. But this year, they seemed to fall all at once, and before we knew it, someone had to pick them up.

So this was last Saturday's project. Jeff used the leaf blower to get the leaves to a central location, and I'm not kidding when I say that the pile stretched a good 20 feet long. We filled six 55-gallon bags, and another six 39-gallon bags. You might think that I look back on the chore of filling all those bags with dread, but I don't. I've actually been thinking about the fun time we had. What made it fun? Just the fact that Jeff wanted those leaves PACKED in those bags--not just collected. Every few armfuls, he or one of the girls {and sometimes myself} would lay, sit and bounce on those bags to force the air out and compact the leaves. It was actually kinda fun {or in my case, comical} to watch.

So it's not just the process of the leaves changing color and falling to the ground that can be very fleeting. It's also those moments we spend together, enjoying one another's company. The older my kids get, and now the older my grandkids get, the more I realize how fleeting time really is.

I'm grateful for memories, and pictures, and words. Because that's how we can hold onto those moments.