continuation on a theme:

in continuation with what i wrote yesterday, i stumbled across this which i wrote just a few weekends ago:

the leaves have all fallen off of the tree in front of my dorm. well, almost. closer inspection reveals a handful of the bright-yellow ones still clinging to the branches, despite the wind and cold. i can't blame them - this year hasn't been very fair. it was certainly warm enough for long enough to make anyone believe that winter may just not come this year.

but the weather has snapped cold, and i have virtually moved from skirts to sweaters.

the leaf flutters again. all his brothers and sisters lie scattered on the ground - yellow spots on the newly laid black asphalt. one more gust of wind...he's given up. winter's come.

winter means holidays. thanksgiving is coming soon. frost on the ground - warm, rich, moist kitchen air draws everyone there. laughter bubbles up and bounces around the rafters: little globes of colored glass clashing with the dark wooden beams and tinkling into a myriad of pieces.

tradition. family. community. these are the things which i am thankful for. the things which ground my heart when the november breezes blow. it's the hand that you grasp in the wind and rain. as cold as yours but warmer now for the touch.

it's the steady, pulsing rhythm which lays the bass line for the music of life - now allegro, now andante, now legato, but always there. it's the feeling of a mug held in your hands, the warmth bleeding into your fingers like a watercolor left out in the rain.

it's the faces whose lines and contours you know so well, yet whose constant animation keeps you entrhalled - plugged into every moment. it's a celebration of life, and it's beautiful. after all, life is beautiful, why shouldn't its party be as well?

life is beautiful in the wonder of experiencing a new thing. it is beautiful in the icy fingers of wind which work their way past your scarf and tickle the back of your neck. it's beautiful in the way light enters the world every morning and makes everything new. it's beautiful in the heart-wrenching sounds of music - a voice carried so high it breaks - a note held so perfectly long and perfectly pure it makes you cry.

life is beautiful in its sorrows, too. beautiful in its raw humanity - beautiful in the way that it touches your heart - beautiful in the way we are all connected.

sometimes do you feel so alive that you could die?