Raking more than leaves

Friday night we had a roast of sorts for my neighbor who died. A few of us in the hood got together with Sid's girlfriend, her daughter and husband, and some of our former neighbors for cocktails and munchies and we told Sid stories. We ended up telling neighborhood stories, and since quite a few of our neighbors have died, we sort of roasted all of them too. It was a fitting tribute to a good friend who did not want a memorial or a funeral service.

Saturday morning Tom went outside to rake leaves. I had my coffee and some breakfast and then, because I'm working hard on my exercise-get-into-shape resolution, I went out in the front yard to help him. I took over the raking portion of the job while he started bagging the piles he had already completed. As I worked I wondered about how long it had been since I had raked leaves. As kids we raked leaves each fall, and I thought about all of the fun times we use to have building houses and running and jumping into the leaves. I thought about how Darcy should be out helping her parents and that triggered my memory of the last time I did rake at this house. It was six years ago and my kids had been playing in our neighbor, Garnet's, yard with Elliot and her dog Coco. They were swinging on dead palm fronds on her palm tree, and she and I stood and talked.

At some point in our conversation the leaves from our trees was brought up and the girls begged me to rake so they could jump in the leaves. We borrowed a second rake from our next door neighbor Howard and we raked leaves. Eventually the girls and the dogs jumped in the pile I made while Garnet and I stood and laughed. Sid sat out in his garage and watched the girls yelling out that I should come into his yard and continue raking.

As I raked on Saturday all of those memories were rushing through my head, and I thought how cool it was that this little activity had actually involved three neighbors who were no longer around. I thought about how my girls had enjoyed that day running and jumping through the leaves, and that now it was just Tom and me doing the job because it needed to be done. Darcy did eventually make the mistake of driving up while we were working. I commented about how she was off filling her tank and making purchases with my credit card while we worked, and so she sighed and joined us in the activity. We all took turns raking, blowing, and sweeping because we only have one rake, one blower, and one out door broom, and no Howard anymore to borrow those items from.

Later, after lunch, I found the blog entry I had done on the raking of the leaves that day, complete with the video I had made. I used the song, Autumn Leaves, to accompany the video, and as I watched it I couldn't believe how that song, the video, my kids growing older, raking leaves, the loss of my neighbors, and our roast the night before had all come together full circle. Life. It's interesting, and sad, and wonderful.

Here is the video with a few additions: