Raking Leaves

Today after church, I had one of those movie-moments, when nostalgia, symbolism (cheesy as it may be), emotion and all that good stuff come together in a single event in time...

I was raking the leaves that gathered on my front lawn after lunch. I love Fall because of the crispiness of the air, the smell of leaves, grass and the outdoors and just the breathtaking colours of the trees. It never fails to stop me in my tracks to enjoy; and to give thanks to God for making things so pretty. There's a maple tree outside my house that has been there since we moved into our home in 1981. As I was raking the leaves, I remembered that Sunny B, my friend whom I've grown up with since kindergarden and who lives across the street from me, used to play the "10-20" game. We used to stand on top of the 1 foot tall cable box and try to jump off to touch a branch. Each branch had designated points, depending on how far it was from the cable box. The points would start at 10..then 20...we weren't ingenious marketers back in Grade 2. It was fun..Sunny and I did a lot of things together when we grew up; we tried to play "Clue" together - 2 person Clue is quite hard to pull off. Funny how time passes you by - the maple tree has grown now that the branches that used to be 10 points are now probably 40-point branches. Even the cable box has grown - it's now 4 feet tall instead of 1.

Sunny now teaches Science in highschool and sometimes, along side some of our old teachers. As I was thinking of the 10-20 game, she pulled up to her driveway! So we chatted and caught up because sadly, even though she lives across the street, we rarely see each other. She had news to tell me! Engaged! August! Wow! I was sooo happy for her! It took me by such surprise that I couldn't stop hugging her and for once, I felt tears of joy almost forming! This is great news! Sunny's a great girl and she's a picky one - so to know that she was engaged, he must be a good guy. Next August - she's getting married - that's when we're planning to move from our place. And her parents were thinking of moving too, since her brother will be moving out too. We're all moving - out and onward. W'e're two of the last three families on this street that were original owners.

I must be watching too many movies, but I couldn't help notice the setting of it all: a sunny sunday afternoon on a crispy fall day, as I was reminiscing the fun we had playing on the maple tree, of which leaves Iwas raking, I learn of new beginnings and changes and the passing by of old things and eras, just like the changing colours of the leaves. Then I reminded myself - we are kids no more, and continued on with raking the leaves.