Autumn

Yesterday could have been the day, but the bullying winds functioned as a deterrent. Thankfully, yesterday’s deterrents are today’s incentives.

I can recount the activities of past years when it’s happened—when I’ve realized that its arrival is no longer imminent… it is now. I’ve been walking out of the greenhouse of the Pickin’ Patch in Avon, CT, sprinting up and down the soccer field at Westminster School, Simsbury, CT, barreling down Country Club Dr. in Greensboro, NC with the windows down and the music up, rambling down Franklin St. in Chapel Hill, NC after a meal at Mediterranean Deli.

This year I smelled it in the breeze as I stomped a signpost in the ground outside of 1501 S. California Ave. Palo Alto, CA.

Each year the moment of realization is different—each unique to the episodes of my life.

Today marks my first California Fall.