Falling

It’s Election Day.  If I were in Chicago I’d say, “vote early and vote often”. 

It’s a gorgeous sunny day which made walking to the polls a wonderful experience.  After a short line and an even shorter ballot, I made my way back.  I decided to talk the long way, so to speak.  Deering Oaks Park is a wonderful space, designed by Frederick Olmstead, the same man who designed Central Park in New York City.  There are wading pools and a playground for kids, basketball and tennis courts, horseshoe pits, a very quirky baseball field (very short down the line and a “deep” center field of 350 feet), and wonderful walking paths under a variety of trees.  As I walked through the park, I found some chestnuts on the ground.  I hadn’t seen chestnuts since I was a kid in Bangor.

But the crown jewel of the park is the duck pond.  The perimeter of the pond is surrounded by a 3-foot stone wall with flat cap stones.  People like to sit at the edge and feed the ducks, along with the seagulls who come inland to “slum” in the park and steal the bread from the ducks. Today the pond was full of ducks, splashing and quacking.

 In the center of the pond is a simple fountain.  There are colored lights that come on after dusk, making the fountain look like a beacon coming up from the water.  About fifteen years ago, there was a week-long festival in the park, put on by the Chamber of Commerce.  One of the highlights of the week were the Chinese fireworks that were set off over the pond.  It would stop traffic, turning  State Street, Park Avenue and Deering Avenue into  parking lots.  I was living four street up from the park at the time.  My Ex- and I would walk down and spend the evening.

Today,  it was kicking fallen leaves, breathing deeply, and “looking up”.  I remember a story I’d read when I was a boy.  It’s was called “Frederick”, and it’s about a mouse who lives in a stone wall with other mice.  Rather than help gather food for the approaching winter, Frederick is content to sit on the wall, basking in the warm sunshine.  The other mice aren’t too keen on him not offering to help.  But later, when the winter winds are howling and their food supply is dwindling, the other mice come to Frederick and ask him about what he stored for the winter.  What the mouse stored were memories of the warm autumn days, the feeling of the stones on the wall, and the colors of the world surrounding him.

I was always touched by that story.  For me, it’s about taking stock in the world around you, and keeping those cherish memories tucked away until the right moment.  Someday you’ll pull them out when you need a laugh, when you want to remember a loved one, or to remember a time from childhood, when the only care you had was having a friend to play with or a bike to ride. 

On a day like this, I’ll pull out memories of jumping in huge piles of maple and oak leaves.  I’ll remember walking to school and listening to the crunch of the leaves under my Stride-Rite sneakers.  I’ll remember hikes with church youth groups, stuffing scarecrows with my children and propping them up in lawn chairs in front of the house, and a first kiss.  That happened on a football fan bus, heading south to Portland for the State Championship game.  She was a year ahead of me.  She also was the one who pulled me into a supply closet after school, teaching me to French kiss.  We kissed on the way down and coming home, scrunched down in the seat so that no one would notice.   She went out of my life as quickly as she came in, and I didn’t stand a chance.

I also remember the first time My Love and I first made love.  It was around this time.  We began our afternoon walking in her neighborhood, kicking leaves and holding hands.  All the time in the world was ahead of us, and all the time was what we needed.  I won’t get into details, but it was the perfect day.

And it was the perfect night.

Create your memories today.  Let them bring you warmth when your life gets cold.