Leaves...

This morning I had an interesting and almost inspiring observation of my world. I noticed this morning that the leaves are changing colors in the Southeast. It sounds so very ordinary…happens every year around the same time…right? Well, for me that isn’t really true. I lived in Texas, in the San Antonio mostly, for almost 10 years before moving back to the Southeast almost 2 years ago. San Antonio is notoriously hot…and low on the rain gauge. The leaves, when they change at all, go from green to brown in late spring…very few change through a series of colors…you just wake up one morning and everything is brown from the lack of rain. This is not a dig on Texas at all; I love that state…and what it lacks in leaf colors it makes up in wildflowers…mostly in March and April. The colors come out in an array that puts a rainbow to shame…but I digress.

I noticed the leaves changing this morning…golden yellows to bright reds and pumpkin oranges…appropriate given the approaching holiday. I thought to myself, “Funny, I don’t remember seeing this last year…” Then I remembered…around this time last year I was in the Middle East, in an area that has very few trees, let alone leaves to change colors…but then it was still 110 degrees if I recall correctly…I love my country…and not just because the leaves change colors…but it is a nice reminder that not all have it as good as I do…

God Bless America