Autumn

Yesterday one of my young male students asked me what I'd be doing over the break and I said I'd probably be reading and taking more photographs. He told me of his folio of photos taken of people laughing ~ he loved the way their mouths moved and the wrinkles that formed on their faces. As we watched rain drops slip quietly off the evergreen plant outside the window we talked about time ~ how the semester had dissolved so quickly and how each moment is important. As he continued to look rather reflectively through the window he mentioned that soon Autumn leaves would be on the ground and then I realised that he had been so absorbed in life and his studies that he hadn't noticed that they were already there in abundance. When I pointed this out he seemed surprised and a little sad. In that moment all was suspended, there was just he and I, the misty grey sky that made everything look a little softer, the small white flowers on the bush that was beginning to droop under the weight of the water and a wonderful silence.