Fool's gold in the rain

When I was a child, my dad had a small nugget of gold.  Fool's gold, he called it.  Although I understood it was not the real thing, I still thought it strikingly beautiful, maybe even prettier than the real thing.  I always wondered what made one of value and the other not worth anything.  I understand as an adult it is the properties, but I still say, just to gaze on it, one is as lovely as the other.

The past week or so has given me "fool's gold" on my deck.  It is strewn with leaves on the decking, on the table and even covering the chair seats which need to be brushed off each time before we sit.  Elm leaves, maple leaves, as well as the poplar leaves, always the last to fall, are scattered about in bright profusion.  Even without knowing the date however, the giveaway that they are not truly autumn's glory cascading down, is the fact they are all yellow.  Not an orange or red among them.  The truth is, the trees were stressed.  They had been too long without rain.

I still gazed out my patio doors from my 68 degree house at the 90 degree deck with a thrill in my soul, knowing that real autumn was not far off.  Soon the gold would be real.

Then today it rained.  It rained an autumn rain, cold and windy. The temperature remained in the 60s, nearly unheard of for August in Wisconsin. It felt like October, and the leaves on the deck looked like October, except . . . still no orange, still no burgundy or rust.  Just gold. Fool's gold.

Autumn is just around the corner though. I saw a leaf scuttle just out of sight around that corner.  Soon I will not even have to look for fall, it will be here in all its glory. 

Until the real gold of autumn comes though, I will relish the fool's gold, content with whatever colors God paints all of my world, and with the watercolor strokes of the dripping brush he painted my world today.

Blessings friends and readers.