Seeing beauty that exists in the stark landscape

The other day as I was coming home from work down the same street, past the same creek that wound through the same trees getting nearer to my house with each turn and bend in the road, every scene was the same. But this day was different from the day last week. For this day all of the leaves had fallen from the trees almost all at once.

It's not unusual for our landscapes to change this rapidly particularly when our Fall weather stays in the 80s and 90s and then suddenly the temperature plummets to the low 30s. And that was the case this day.

I stopped for a moment and took in the stark setting as the trees and limbs stood bare like skeletons with their arms outstretched holding onto to maybe a single leaf.

And then I saw some color. It wasn't a red or bronze leaf, but it was a bright colored jacket or maybe a sweater on a young child. And then I saw another and another. They were simply kids playing in the woods, like they did everyday but now they were no longer hidden by the camouflage of the foliage.

I saw forts in the boughs of the massive trunks of the oak trees. I saw boards nailed to the same trunks providing a ladder to each of the flimsy hideouts. I could hear distance shouts of joy as the kids chased each other like they did everyday but this time spotted by someone who dreamed of those times many years ago.

It was a moment that took me back 60 years to a time when life was peaceful and innocent.

And it also reminded me that as we pass thru life seeing the same people, same houses, same streets, same woods behind that foliage, behind those walls, behind those fallen leaves there are kids enjoying a moment in time. And sadly, sometimes the cries aren't always cries of joy, but cries of sadness and pain, hiding behind the cloak of color.

I'm glad I took that moment. I'm glad I had that memory.

I hope those who live with suffering behind the curtain can find hope and turn their anguish into happiness.