Today

Fall morning wrapped in reds and gold leaves has met me here as I climb the steps to my office. This day feels like it is beginning bright and crisp. Leaves on the trees are golden now. Now, October 11 is the mid-point of the cycle of their turning. In this season I came to this place. In this season I came to love this place. 

 The turning of the leaves leads to the turning of the year; it is only a short stroll the time from October to late December. The walk from a season I associate with young love to the shortest darkest days of the year is but a marker in a life I have been afforded the opportunity to live. 

 As I move forward on this one way path my earnest desire is that the choices I have made are appropriate and valuable ones. I want my life to have helped when measured on balance rather that to have been a hindrance. 

 On this crisp day I turn to coffee, one of my sinful pleasures and I savor it. Pounding away at the keyboard I reach for a cup of black Biggby’s Best and remember those early cups of coffee when I was first experiencing the dark, exotic smelling beverage in the dorms at MSU; it was black coffee, eggs, bacon and a cigarette to finish off the whole experience. 

 Now it is the warmth of the cup that matters. The air temperature is so much more real to me now. At 19 years of age a thin jacket was good enough for a 40 F day. Today I need a little more in the way of a shell. Fleece is good. Coffee, fleece and standing on the loading dock locking east into the climbing sun’s light. I think I can face today. I really do.