Mondays are early days and so by 8:30 everyone is dropped off at school and we are left with much more of the morning to get things done or to do fun things. It was such a gorgeous autumn day today and everyone was feeling well so we headed a little past home to a nearby park and went on one of our favorite trails through the woods there. I have been walking this trail through the seasons for a decade and a half with different combinations of children and I never tire of it. I still notice things and I have many happy memories of walking with all of my children through here. I am happy to still have young children to do this with.
Right as we got onto the trail and started picking up stones we heard honking and looked up to see a whole flock of geese flying in a V formation. Kaitlyn said it looked more like a check mark. The geese are on the move, regardless.
Shorter trees are not as colorful as some of the giant trees standing tall to reach the sunlight but the plump red berries were beautiful to look at and there are still a few flowers along the trail in the woods as well giving color down low.
The kids “trip-tropped” over the bridge looking to see if there was any water under them… or trolls for that matter. Then they found a comfy natural style “couch” to sit on together. Both kids look cute sporting their new short hair cuts again.
We meandered through the woods, checked out the sink holes and a few times stood silently, Indian style, so we could hear the birds chirping in the bright morning sunlight in the treetops above.
There were stones, colored leaves, water and bugs to check out.
We looked for snakes unsuccessfully this time. Sometimes they sit in the low branches of the trees. We did find a fun grasshopper which Nathan repeatedly picked up and giggled at when it would hop off his hand leaving him with a tickly sensation on his skin but finally it landed in the leaves off the trail and we lost him. We passed a couple of people who brought friendly dogs with them toward the end of our walk.
And the few people we met at the end of the trail each asked Nathan what he had in his hand. “It’s a big leaf” he proudly told them and one older gentleman informed him that “yes, that’s from a Sycamore tree” while Nathan nodded and smiled. We came home with pockets of pebbles, leaves and cheerful memories of birds, grasshoppers and I, still feeling those squishy little fists holding onto my hands. Farther back in the recesses of my memory are thoughts of crisper autumn days with long shadows in the afternoons many, many miles from here as I walked a different set of trails with my own siblings, stepping on a million crunchy leaves as they carpeted the trails and listening to my dad pointing out a variety of birds or signaling to us to hush so we too could listen. Almost an escape back to childhood, the experience for me of walking on nature trails seems to join the generations on both sides of me, my mind and my heart holding on tight. My children love this time together. And so do I.
And so do I hold onto the memories of holding onto your hand and then those of your brothers and sisters and so many walks and leaves and flowers and stones and sticks; I remember walking in Saginaw with you and dis covering the one and only Lilac bush in the area and how much we enjoyed that;it was a little piece of my home that I could share with you in that far away place. And how I remember how beautiful Autumn-leaved trees out front of Saginaw General Hospital were when my beautiful 1st baby boy was born. How wonderful to remember all these beautiful days and walks and times with my children. The memories are always just below the surface and so beautiful and so poignant when you're looking back.
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