First frost

After I got done milking this morning (Saturday), I walked to what we refer to as "The Low Pasture" to check up on the beasts there. I had already noticed that it was quite cool, and there was a serious frost upon the windows and the vegetation, the first "killing frost" we've had this year. As I walked through the crunchy grass, breaking off frozen blades in the bright, sharply angled, winter sunlight, I heard a gentle pop, and turned to see what it was.  But as I looked, I could see nothing; all I saw were trees and a single leaf floating to the ground. Still looking, listening intently on this almost perfectly still morning, the air just barely stirred, nearly imperceptibly.  Then just as I felt the air move I heard it again; pop... pop... and then popopopopopopopop! The sound was actually the noise the leaf makes when disconnecting from the tree.  I witnessed the very moment when all things came into place for the time to be right to start dropping leaves, and did they ever!  These Mulberry trees that have been standing over my property for most of a century prior to it becoming my property were dropping leaves like rain, covering the ground like a blanket as the very light breeze did gentle violence to the trees.  I walked closer and couldn't help but drop to my knees in the frosty grass, crushed by the beauty and splendor of the moment, to give thanks and worship the God that put me in such a place that allows me to be the intimate witness to the unhurried undressing of these trees, yet some of them for reasons unknown, seemed to shed their coverings more hurriedly than others, like a young husband anxious to slide between the sheets with his bride.

And then just in time, lest this moment be spoiled by not having anyone with which to share it, my very nearly 12-year-old son Isaiah happened along with his new bb-gun looking for something to shoot.  I beckoned him over and he knelt down patiently beside his very strange father and together we enjoyed the quiet cacophony of half a dozen trees exfoliating in this still, bright morning.