Of all the seasons fall is the most beautiful in Oklahoma.
Sunshine warms the body and soul to perfection like the toaster occasionally
toasts my bread. I struggle so often to get the perfect toast but for sunshine
we leave ourselves at the mercy of sun. Surprisingly life is really wonderful
with out the weight of trying to be perfect or having no say in spread of
sunshine and many wonderful things that are gifted to us.
After unusually wet
early October, we are now blessed again with sunny weather. It is just so
nourishing and heartwarming to take a walk around neighbor hood or drive around
town to watch the trees bursting with colors of fall. Sun leaves a golden hue
on top of the trees still with leaves. Rain and wind has littered the ground
with leaves. I sit out and watch those dry leaves falling and dancing in air
for a while before their gentle and quiet fall. Even in their demise they offer
beauty and solace to the onlookers. Some of them get stuck in cobwebs trembling
and quivering in space like hanging between eternity and mortality.
On those warm, beautiful and quiet days of fall the only
annoying thing is the sound of leaf blowers and big monster lawnmowers. We have
to bear them like many other nuisances of modern life. I have been delaying to
call my lawn mower guy to stretch the lovely sight that my yard, still full of
leaves, offers me. I have never bagged leaves accept for once and have stayed
away from it because of the strain that it causes to my back. But I am not yet
ready to let go of those leaves by those nasty blowers either.
So I surveyed the leaves covered front yard. It was smaller
than my back yard. With winds calm it looked like millions of tiny fishes were
basking under the bright sun. I had left the scene untouched for as long as I
could but it was time to come out of my imaginative state and do some cleanup.
Still In my desire to get close to nature’s simple beauty I decided to give
raking a try but this time with a feminine touch and make my work enjoyable
rather then speedy. At my age in figuring out the quality of life, speed is the
last factor any way. So I over looked the big black trashcan and the heavy
shovel and picked my tall kitchen wastebasket, dust pan, roll of small trash
bags, my step stool, gloves and the lightest wooden rake. Set everything on
side and raked a small area. The lawn was so full of leaves it took only couple
of minutes to make a big pile. I made few piles knit closely and sat on step
stool as close to big pile of leaves as I could. I laid down the wastebasket
vertically and with the help of dustpan and some time just with hands filled it
up. More than three fourth full I took out the plastic bag and stuffed it a
little more with leaves.
The sun’s rays
warming my face and soft breeze keeping me cool I was amazingly happy to be
able to work in my yard and be close to those leaves. Often I took out my
gloves to feel them. In their brown color with transparent thin veins they were
as alive as I am with my flesh and blood under my brown skin. Kissed by the
morning dew some were still wet and moist like my own drippy nose. I worked for
an hour interrupted only by a green grasshopper that said hello and flew away.
A brown butterfly blended so well with leaves that I almost bagged it. I
stopped for few minutes to watch it flutter and fly. While filling the bags
some leaves escaped their destiny. I stopped and watched them dancing away to
the street. Some settled on the concrete but some flew a little further to
destination unknown.
I worked for about an hour and filled about ten bags. A
little tired I got up and looked around. The fact that I barely had made a dent
in that yard full of leaves hardly bothered me. The pleasure that I found in
working every minute of that hour was immense. In next few days I worked few
more hours at my slow and easy speed to fill nine or ten bags at a time.
Finally the front yard was showing more green than brown but the autumn clouds
and cold wind returned. My back yard is still untouched and full with those
crisp and tender brown leaves. The trees are almost bare now. As much as I
would like to work in my back yard to be close to this soul touching weather I
know it would be a bit too much for me. Eventually it would be cleaned up with
those monster blowers mercilessly but not before I enjoy few more weeks of fall
with the yard full of leaves. In the mean time I have to figure out how to
dispose of those fifty or so feather light bags!
Savita Tyagi
11.13.09
I shared it on my Face Book some time back when it was written. With lovely fall around us sharing it again on the blog.
