Trees

It's weird, I know, but I've always had a thing for trees. There was a huge oak outside my grandmother's house with two large knots on the trunk. We called it the Butt Tree. When I was a kid, my favorite book was My Side of the Mountain, which was about a boy who ran away and hallowed out a tree and lived off the land for a year.

There were points in my life when I lived in neighborhoods that felt naked for the lack of trees, and all of that barren, open space just felt oppressive. I'm at the point now where I simply refuse to live in a neighborhood that lacks trees.

This autumn is especially nice for me, for several reasons. This is the first autumn in probably a decade when I've not either had to deal with a stressful job, or worry about being unemployed. And, this year I'm working out in a lovely suburb, with almost a mile between my train stop and my office. The foliage this year is not to be believed. Simply not to be believed. In years past, I've been disappointed when all of the leaves just turned yellow. I missed the reds and oranges. This year I'm seeing a rainbow of reds, with some as deep as purple and others that bleed as if tie-dyed with yellow. Today I discovered a tree with maroon leaves, and it was if all of the leaves had died but were still attached to the branches. They hung there like a semi-precious stone chandelier.

Most people tend to think of autumn as the beginning of the end, or perhaps a coda to the main event of the year, summer. But for me, this year, everything else has led up to these weeks and the colorful trees are the climax, a symphonic crescendo of color. I'm doing everything I can to enjoy every second of it.