You Smell That?

There are certain smells in this world, at least ones that I have experienced first hand, that tend to be engraved in my little 'ol olfactory system.  These smells, in turn, trigger memories -- memories from my upbringing, childhood, and growing up in a small community, in a small, wooded subdivision.  Fall would be a time of raking of leaves into a pile, jumping into them as though you had no other care in the world.  We would walk through the nearby wooded lots on the way to the bluff, allowing the fallen leaves to spread before our footsteps like a carpet being laid before dignitaries...something we were far from being.  But it certainly was a moment then, and is a memory now.  A good one.

Fall is my favorite season of the year, hands down.  Even though it signals the decay of all things green and the approaching winter season (blaaahhhhh!), autumn ushers in so many sounds, colors...and smells.  The other day I was walking through a park in Indianapolis when those same sounds, colors and smells approached my ears, eyes, and nose...sensations that brought me back to those years far gone.

It was simple, really.  Just walking along a paved path, with a golf course on the left and a pond on the right.  But before me a canopy of leaves making their change, trees signaling a call to dormancy, really.  Mother nature, God the Creator, actually, orchestrating another act of his power...and grace.

A Path Before Me