It had rained all night — not a gentle, drizzling rain, but furious downpours punctuated with flashes of lightning and loud explosions of thunder.  One jolt, at 4AM, was enough to make me startle out of deep sleep and sit straight up in bed before the room faded once again into darkness.  Still, by the time 5:30 rolled around the rain had stopped.  It looked as though my day in the Pumpkin Patch would proceed as planned, so I dressed in my warm clothes and made my way to the woods.  Morning mist hung in the air, and the depleted clouds still lingered along the horizon.

I made my way along the muddy trail to my little house, stepping carefully around the puddles that had filled the ruts left by yesterday’s tractors.  Brown and yellow leaves, and occasionally a red one, lay like a trail between the puddles; so I followed the colorful path to a place that seemed far different from the sunny one I had left the day before.  Even the birds were silent.  Maybe they could sense something that escaped me, because soon I found myself taking shelter in the shed and listening to the raindrops of a lingering shower making their way from leaf to leaf as they found a slow path from treetop to earth.  It sounded like the trees were clapping their hands with delight at receiving the gift of water, and I found myself smiling as I listened to the symphony of water bouncing from one leaf to the next.  I tried to remember whether small children would melt in the rain, but my mind was too caught up in the rhythm of the moment to complete the thought.

Gradually, the liquid percussion was replaced by the re-awakening of the birds.  Their singing called me back from the place where I had floated, immersed in the whole experience of being part of the rain.  I dried my props and adjusted my special hat just in time to hear the throaty engine of the tractor starting and the squeals of the children being pulled along in the hay wagon.  The sun began to show itself through the treetops, and each color painted on the leaves became several as sunlight added shadows and highlights to the palette of Fall.  I took a deep breath and just took in the whole scene — the overnight rain, the mist of the morning, the lingering clouds, and the triumphant sun.  My whole being danced with joy, celebrating the gift of a perfect Fall day.

The tractor engine coughed as the driver pretended to run out of gas.  I followed the sound of excited children and climbed up on the back of the wagon.  ”Who heard that storm last night?” I began.  All hands went up in an instant.  ”Would you like to hear a poem that I made up this morning?”  They would.  And so I began:

All night long it rained and rained,

Then the misty morning came.

The fat, round sun came out to play

And pushed the dreary clouds away.

What a beautiful Autumn day!