Thursday, November 20, 2008

November Gratitudes, No. 7

When we built our house almost 9 years ago, we moved into a brand-new neighborhood. One of the first things we did in our yard was to plant trees.

My dad loved trees. Our house growing up had tons of trees. Each fall, leaves littered our driveways and sidewalks. My dad spent week after week after week cleaning up the debris that the trees left behind, but I never once heard him complain about it.

Now that our trees are maturing a little, we finally get a taste of autumn leaves littering our yard. I looked out my window today and saw our trees that line the street are finally shedding their summer foliage. A crunchy layer of brown, red and yellow is covering the still-green grass. Their bright glow in the late afternoon sun has brightened my day.

Today I am grateful for the beauty of leaves. And I wish that I could share that with my dad in a way that he would understand.

3 comments:

Ginger said...

Nice. :) Well, you can share it with us and we will always understand.

Jeanette said...

He understands on a deeper level I think. =0)

Amy Sorensen said...

I have been trying to write about the tree in our front yard at home...maybe now I can finally get it out. I understand completely what you mean about wishing you could share it with Dad. There are many things, too many, that I didn't ever thank him for or say. It makes me sad. Anyway. Glad you are getting in on all the leafy goodness that autumn brings. Our leaves are, suprisingly enough, nearly finished. The sycamores dropped early this year.