Monday, October 05, 2009

Autumn musings


One of my routes home takes me by a field with a bunch of apple trees - and one of those trees has the tastiest little apples. I often swing by and grab one for an end-of-run snack. This past week as I came upon the field I discovered five deer with the same idea: apple munchathon time!

Along with apple-laden trees, it's the time of the harvest moon, which means I can run to my volunteer job at 6 in the morning wearing sunglasses even though the sun has yet to peek above the eastern horizon when I leave the house. However, when I get within a couple of miles of work the sunrise is underway - and they have been stellar lately. Perhaps it's the pre-winter low-lying clouds picking up the early rays or the golden-hued grasses reaching to the sky...whatever the reason, the sky above and earth are infused with an amber glow to begin the day.

Just such a sunrise graced my run this morning reminding me of the train ride to Knox College for Family Weekend three years ago. (We're headed there again, on the train, in just a few days.) Kendall and I were just waking up and I looked out the window to see miles and miles of fields nestled under a lifting fog, gently glowing in the rays of the rising sun. I turned to Kendall and said "This is why I want to run across the heartland." It is still those scenes - rustling grasslands, fog-filled river valleys, north woods canopies, sparkling waves - that fill my mind when I think back on the run.

And today? Amber autumn clouds at sunrise, golden aspen leaves drifting through the air, owls hooting from above, and sharing apples with the deer. It's all good.

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