Memories

I am a journal teacher. I taught creative and healing journal classes for decades. One of the most powerful exercises is “I remember…” and there are few things more evocative for me than the memories of leaves in the fall. I have been trying to find the perfect picture all morning and I couldn’t find it. What I wanted was a picture of a pile of leaves burning. People don’t do that anymore, but when I was young the smell of burning leaves was one of those things that was just part of autumn and you could walk through your neighborhood and see piles of leaves burning in nearly every yard at some time in the fall. I loved that smell and I miss it. I think of it every autumn. And collecting beautiful leaves in bright reds and golds and oranges and putting them between the pages of books, the crunch of leaves underfoot, jumping into a pile of leaves, and did you ever wax the leaves so their colors would last and last? Did you walk with a special someone in the autumn with leaves falling and beautiful colors everywhere, and how did it make you feel? What are your special memories of leaves in the autumn? Tell me everything in the comments below here on the blog.

I have decided that as this experiment is a year long journey some days I would just invite you to write your memories here, to get in touch with those things perhaps long forgotten that might move you and bring back sweet memories of the golden autumns of your youth. And, if you live some place where there are no fall leaves, because of climate, or in the part of the world where you live there aren’t deciduous trees, tell me what autumn was like where you were, what were your memories of autumn? And feel free to pick up other thoughts as they arise. Walking outside and smelling your mother’s apple pie baking through an open window, raking leaves with your father, the dog jumping in the leaves, how your grandmother would stand on the porch looking melancholy and a little misty-eyed remembering her own youth. Include it all. (Not to mention things like loving the smells and memories of autumn because you know it’s time for Pumpkin Spice lattes, pumpkin pie, pumpkins and gourds on front porches…) Give me everything! Give me your memories of autumn. You can use the falling leaves as a jumping off place into your store of memories of autumn and record everything you can remember that made you happy. I’d really love to hear from you. I’d really love to know how it was for you.

May Autumn Blessings and Sweet Memories Be Yours…