Joyfully I sit next the babbling brook. The bench is new and smells of pine. It is sturdy beneath my body as I sit and lift my head to the sky. The sky was a perfect medium blue without a cloud as far as my eyes could see. As I sit under the tree, a crisp cool breeze caresses my throat and nose.

As the breeze floated through the changing leaves of the oak tree above me it loosened a random leaf here that there. Each leaf would twirl and say back and forth in the breeze as it carefully and slowly came to rest on the green grass around the bench.

My glance lingered on a yellowing leaf as it danced in the sky. First, a slow descent, then a wild back and forth and then a twirling leaf dance. When the breeze stilled it just slowly swayed back and forth and twisted one last time before landing on the surface of the brook before me. My eyes followed the lone leaf, as it was a passenger of the brook instead of the breeze now. It bobbled on each small wave as turned and twisted around a fallen branch. Taking on more water, the leaf seemed to disappear beneath the surface of the water only to pop back to the surface a few inches past the branch. Its journey was still in question.

The little golden leaf folded and flattened with the current of the brook. It looked almost jubilant in its escape of the tree. As I watched, it came to rest a few yards away on the bank with a gathering of other escape leaves.

A golden retriever came lumbering to bank where the leaves gather. I could no longer distinguish which was the leaf that I had watched as he journeyed to the bank. The dog lapped the water of the brook as he waded. As the dog waded the gathering of leaves as he trampled and mixed the leaves with the fresh mud. Some the leaves escaped back into the brook and were journeying again downstream.

As I quietly watched the happy scene before me, I could hear the barking of the dog mixed with a toddler’s high pitch giggles and the lower tones of the parents as they maneuvered the brood. The chill of the breeze was becoming warmer as the sun began to lift higher in the sky. It was becoming a treasured fall day to be sitting and watching the falling leaves.

Soon the floating escape leaves were approaching the covered bridge in the near distance. The last I could make out of the leaves entangled in a small fallen tree beneath the covered bridge. What a lovely sight.