The woods were aflame with intense color this morning. I slipped outside alone with my camera. This is my favorite time of year, and these trees were putting on an elaborate show. I ducked up under low-lying limbs, my feet sinking into the thick layer of leaves on the forest floor. Standing right up under these towering trees, I aimed camera skyward. Stopping to smell and listen and feel, I remembered again how I've grown to love these mountains where I live.
My last fall in Georgia... I want it to last as long as possible. I cringe when the wind blows hard and leaves pull from their anchor, leaving bare limbs. I want to soak this vibrant scene in one more time, to learn the colors by heart, to memorize the unique smell of the woods. This is part of me and always will be, and I want to remember it.
Some things in life are just like that. When they come along, you just want to hold on forever and never let go. It bursts with color and depth that enriches your life like nothing else. And you just want to hold onto it forever...to commit it to the lifetime memory of the heart.
The leaves drop one by one...some blown away on gusts of wind, others strewn in dotted patterns over grass and ground.
It's fall...both glorious and sad...like fireworks that explode and then sizzle into black sky.
The floor of the woods grows deeper with each added layer. Year upon year of once-vibrant foliage. And next year I won't be here to see the new layer. But I'll remember.
