Luck Would Have It

Today I'm feeling very lucky about the bright fall weekend I had—all the hours spent outside letting the incandescent autumn light shine on me. The afternoon I read four chapters of a new book with the sun like a heater on my back. The short sleeves I was able to wear while skating with a bunch of friends—and then having to snatch a warm flannel out of the car when shadows crept in. The homemade mac and cheese I ate right out of the oven, "brown and bubbly" just like the recipe detailed. The drive north along the Columbia River through tree-lined fields—Mt. St. Helens shining with snow across the water. The acceptance that longer, darker nights are restorative—that "rest" is allowable, that sitting on the couch under a blanket under a cat is a more-than-fine way to pass an evening, that all the "going" and "doing" you did this summer is somehow JUST NOW catching up with you and maybe that's why you are suddenly so FUCKING EXHAUSTED every night at 6 o'clock ...