Say what you will about autumn color set off by blue skies, but when it's gray outside the bright trees seem to glow from within. It's as if the stored goodness of all those days in the sun are giving something back to us now — something that says, yes, we will fall and crinkle and be trod underfoot; yes, our whitened trunks will be revealed and cold winds will blow — but beyond it is all this radiance.
That's what it seems like on cloudy days in October when birds are still singing and squirrels scamper to store food and summer annuals cling to life in pots on the deck.
We'll see how it feels in a few weeks...