Fading Beauty

 Fading beauty is still beautiful.

There is something bittersweet about Autumn.

Days get shorter.

Our activities shift and we know before long

our contact with neighbors will be far less

as we hunker down for the long winter.

Our gaze shifts from the flower beds which have

brought so much pleasure all Spring and Summer

to the heights of the trees.

Their blazing color

grabs the eye.

There is no doubt about that.

And yet

I feel compelled to visit and say 

goodbye to the solid

echinacea, 

the mums and even my roses

as they take their final gasp.

 Most of the Echinacea had run its course weeks ago.

Yet, this particular little bit

opened late and continued the impact of color

beside our entry door.

Until the Spring then.....

Thanks for a job well done!

Fading beauty is still beauty

Indeed.

On a different note -

We fared very well during Hurricane Sandy.

It was windy, of course, but we've experienced worse.

Perhaps it was that the eye passed directly over us

that kept things a bit more sedate.

Or, it just could be that we were spared

for no reason other than that 

God willed it that way.

Whatever the case.

My heart breaks for those who lost 

everything.

We hear every day a new death count.

Sobering.

The fires.

The flooding.

The damage.

We were spared 

but not untouched.

Our thoughts are with them.

Our prayers lifted up.