::numbering the stars

I love autumn.

I love baby-sitting my niece, Emma, who is now 14 months old, and continues to amaze me every time I see her.

And when I say she's "amazing," I don't mean that she's the watered-down cliche of the word that has nearly lost all meaning, after being employed by the ignorant masses to describe such mundane fare as souvenir shot glasses and comfortable footwear.

I mean she amazes me, as in:

a⋅maze

–verb (used with object)

1.	to overwhelm with surprise or sudden wonder; astonish greatly.

2.	to bewilder; perplex.

=====

Here are two recent shots I've adored:



She loves to collect acorns :)


Her smiles are so infectious

Although she is my brother's progeny and not my own, she has completely altered my entire life.
She has unwittingly handed me an entirely fresh lens through which I now view all that brushes against my senses.

No word is big or strong or descriptive enough.

Love is the best one I know.

::you're sitting in a chair...in the SKY

Sometimes it just takes a comedian - employing pure, unadulterated exasperation - to express the sentiments I feel so deeply.

::forfeiting their leaves

Emma with Grandpa, 10-1-09

October is my favorite month.

I always fall in love anew with the crisp, chilly air that greets my lungs.
I adore the cornucopia of colors pleasantly brushing past our corneas as we perform our mundane routines of daily drudgery.


And even when the trees have just surrendered
To the harvest time
Forfeiting their leaves in late September
And sending us inside
Still I notice You when change begins
And I am braced for colder winds
I will offer thanks for what has been and what's to come
You are autumn

~Nichole Nordeman