It is yet another gorgeous fall day here in the Chicago area. Our neighborhood currently looks like a postcard of autumn, with picturesque semi-barren oaks dropping their last remaining leaves into a swirling wind by the barn, red and yellow leaves dripping lazily into the ponds and streams and eddying down to the river.

AJ and I walked down to the river this morning. Actually, I�m not sure walked is the best term. One of us rolled via stroller some of the way, as it is a fair distance if one has little legs. The rest of the time we skipped, hopped, sneaked, shuffled, kicked, crunched and ran. We stopped to sprint around the bases at the abandoned Little League field, threw rocks in the water, and tried out every swing on the playground before heading home for lunch and the preliminary preparations for a blueberry pie for dinner. It was a highly satisfactory morning.

When I was in college at an institution that believed in the powers of tradition, every year on a nice day in the fall, the college president would cancel classes by ringing the college bells early in the morning, the idea being that the day was a gift to go and commune with nature. Since most of us were geeks, many of us would use the day to catch up on studying, but I think that every year I managed to at least get out to a farmstand to buy apples or to go for a short hike. It was nice to be forced to stop and look around. AJ is good for that too, although he also occasionally causes me to focus on the small and local things too much.

AJ seemed to be speaking in poetry this morning. He anthropomorphizes the objects he discusses. I�m not sure how much this has to do with a vivified view of his surroundings. It think most of it has to do with his limited experience and vocabulary. As we were walking home, a gust of wind blew up and he exclaimed, �Mommy, the leaves are running! They�re running and skipping and running around and around.� He was enchanted. He doesn�t remember last fall. It was half his life ago.

I�m don�t know where I�m going with this. It was just a nice morning. And now I�m sitting in a basement reading newspaper articles that are 110 years old.

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