My daughters help rake the leaves into huge piles on the lawn.  They use the tree swing to launch up and across the yard, releasing themselves like summer swimmers into a lake of golden water.

If you want to experience the season, burrow into the leaves with the children.  

They hide deep within the piles, and even though it’s decades later, I still recall the burnt spiced smell of leaf piles.  I feel their scratch and crinkle on my face.

A Child Hides in the Leaf Pile

I see the afternoon sun filtered through a million brown leaves.  I hear that particular muffled silence that changes the whole world for a moment.  I taste the leaves’ earthen powder on my lips. 

My daughter surfaces, smiling. 

She’s in there.

Living with flair means we burrow deep, experiencing it. 

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Do you have leaf pile memories?