Today I got to hear my second favorite sound in the whole wide world. (Well, I got to hear my first favorite sound, Amanda's laugh, as well, but that's another blog post in itself.) My second favorite sound is the crunch of fallen leaves under my shoes and I intentionally made it about 20 times today! I capital L-O-V-E this time of year! I'm not exactly sure when it started, but for as long as I can remember I find myself looking forward to the fall as soon as spring starts rearing it's warm, rainy, pastel-colored head. It's deep in my bones and it gets stronger with every passing year.
Maybe it's because fall is when college football starts and I have so many great memories of watching games with my dad, even before I knew what was going on. He cheered, I cheered. He agreed with the coach, I agreed with the coach. He booed the refs, I booed the refs. I became a Miami Hurricanes fan because they won the championship the year I started watching football. Over the years my dad became a Miami fan as well and I don't think it was because they were anything great to him. I think it was because he liked sharing them with me. And when the games were over, we'd go for walks and talk about everything and nothing with the sound of crunching leaves trying to join our conversation.
Or maybe it's because fall is when we start preparing for the holidays and my all-year-long listening of Christmas music can finally be excused for a month or two. See, I'm what you call a "Christmas Freak" and there's just something to be said for any holiday that can make you cut down living vegetation from the outside world and bring it into your living room to be covered with ornaments and lights. And we can't forget Thanksgiving! The time of year when you can eat your weight in those little Hawaiian sweet rolls and mashed potatoes without feeling the the judgmental eyes of the folks in the buffet line at Golden Corral bearing down on you. It's enough to make you not mind running to the store for more ingredients the night before the big Thanksgiving dinner, just so you can hear the holiday song made by the clinking cans of chicken stock, the rustling bag of potatoes and the crunching of the leaves under your feet.
Or maybe it's because everything looks so much cooler in the fall. The colors made by the leaves turning such amazing shades of orange, red, yellow and brown give such a nice ambiance to everything. The beauty and vulnerability of dark brown trees that no longer have any leaves to hide behind. The way the sky can turn such a cool color of grey without raining. When the Bible talks about the earth proclaiming God's glory, these are the images that come to my mind. I think when God created the earth, fall was the inaugural season. And as Adam and Eve walked hand in hand, God said "this is good" just loud enough to be heard over the leaves crunching beneath their feet.
But maybe, just maybe, the strongest reason I get excited about fall is because that is when Amanda and I started dating. Let me take you back to the fall of 1997. Trying to cover my intentions beneath the ruse of setting up two friends, I asked Amanda to go on a double date as part of a "match-making friends team". Well, those two backed out, taking my elaborate cover-up with them. But my heart could not let this opportunity pass by, so I decided to just ask her. She coyly smiled, said "sure" and the date was set. Saturday November 1st, 1997, me and my fellow Fayette Christian Falcons football team were playing for the state championship. Everyone was so pumped, but I could not wait for the game to be over. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say that the opposing team scored the only touchdown of the game with 3 seconds left. My teammates walked off the field, heads hung low, muttering something about it being the worst day of their lives. I didn't exactly catch what they were saying because I was speeding by them, looking for the best day of my life to start. There she was, in a black and white Old Navy sweatshirt, talking to some friends. I snuck up behind her, touched her gently on the back and said "hey". She turned around and hugged my sweaty, dirty, tired self and my world was never the same. We had to have our first date at her house since she was on restriction and couldn't go out. Luckily her parents still let me come over and our date consisted of rewinding a VHS of Toy Story and talking for hours. When it was time for me to go, I decided to throw caution to the wind and go in for the kiss. No words, just fireworks and colors I'd never seen before. Life-changing magic, period. And I'll never forget the sound of the crunching leaves covering our contented silence as she walked back to the house and I walked to my VW Bug, never taking our eyes off each other.
So it may make me sound like a hippie to be in love with a season, but fall has been the backdrop for so many great things in my life and the crunching leaves have provided a soundtrack for so many amazing times. And as I completely revel in this current fall and look forward to many more in the future, I can't help but think of all of the awesome memories that I have yet to experience. I've been blessed with a wife that loves the fall as well and doesn't mind just stopping to look at the beautiful gray sky or driving somewhere to see the leaves change. And as we walk through this crazy world hand in hand, I continue to have the thought that the only thing better than the sound of leaves crunching underneath my feet, is the sound of the leaves crunching underneath our feet.
