Grateful...for pumpkins on a hill....

Someone set pumpkins on the hill. 

How elegant they looked--poised against the dry, dead grass 

and leafless oaks of the field.

There they were....just like the year before..

To me they were captivating.

  Each morning as I drove my daughter to school I noticed these pumpkins.

Who thought to set them there?

Did they check on them each day?  

Did they wonder if anyone noticed?

Did they worry these pretty orange orbs 

could end up smashed on the street by morning?

...like I did?

Each morning I scanned the hill--and they survived... 

carefully positioned on various rocks. 

Ten of them in all.  

 Each car ride I would ask out loud, "do you think the pumpkins made it?"

which was met with teenage eye rolls

...and when their presence was confirmed--they gave me such joy.  

"I should take  a photo,"

I thought to myself back on that first Fall. 

...but the road was busy, I wasn't dressed, etc...

and the days went by, and suddenly..they were gone.   

...removed...  

I felt a bit of emptiness that day...and the drive became a little duller.

I slowly forgot about the pumpkins until one day last October, 

they reappeared....

I was thrilled the anonymous artist was at it again...

decorating the hillside with pops of color.   

This go around I wasted no time thinking about it....

I pulled to the side, put my emergency lights on, 

stopped traffic to cross the road, and climbed the hill....

in my morning sweatpants...

and took photos.....

My attempt to capture the feeling...

...the loneliness...the simple beauty...

Single gourds sitting majestically on lichen decorated thrones...

And there I discovered a nest...intact...but blown from its tree.

How dark life seemed a year ago...

...we were troubled...

...we were hit below the belt...

...and we could feel winds of change blowing..

but did not know when or what shape it would take...

I instinctively knew I would not get another chance to enjoy these pumpkins in person.

The photos would be a good memory during this chapter of life....

...beauty amidst the decay.   

Grateful I stopped.

  Today...a year later, 

this memory pops as brightly 

as the color of the pumpkins against their background...

Impending uncertainty, joblessness, moving...

...behind us now.  

Blown from our place, but still intact...

...grateful for the journey...

Grateful for the person kind enough to set out pumpkins....

...who will never know the joy I received...

I hope they set them out again this year.....

 
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