Autumn Daydream

There is something so beautiful about Autumn. The colors come alive and the air is crisp. Everything has some sort of pumpkin twist to it and people are just gearing up for Thanksgiving. As far as I can remember back, I would sit and look out our bay window lined with these miniature glass bottles and watch the leaves fall, smell my Mother’s banana bread in the oven and start daydreaming. My mind would dart toward adulthood and how I would finally be able to “leave the block” and journey around Europe. My mission would be to carefully cart each tiny bottle with me in a knapsack and scatter them around random locations. Each would contain a note inside with my address in hopes to have someone mail it back so my Mother wouldn’t be mad at me for eternity since these are heirlooms. In the process of my scattering, I forge new friendships and letters would flood into my mailbox daily. Hey, I was 8…Kids dream big. That’s the beauty of childhood. Anything is possible.

Okay, back to my daydream. So, my journey would start in Italy where I would be casually reading a novel, sipping a cappuccino, and then leave one yellow bottle on the table for the server to find. Next stop would be at the newspaper stand at the train station on my way to Prague and that is where the green one would reside. Within a few days, I would be at the Louvre and would place a purple colored bottle inside the hand of a marble sculpture (in hopes of a child would see it) and it would end up in a chateau in France.

But those bottles never did leave the windowsill. Instead, my first voyage to Europe was with my future husband (at the time new boyfriend). Our budding romance was destined for Paris. Together we explored the Louvre, have had cappuccino in Italy and have taken a romantic train ride to Prague via Berlin…Each day is an adventure with Neal whether we are in NYC or in the woods of Vermont. Every time I return to my Mother’s home I gaze out the window and think of how these bottles continue to inspire me to travel.