Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.
- Anne Frank

I like this quote. I live alone in the middle of a fine forest of trees. Six months of the year the solitude is amplified with profuse vegetation and trees that stoically tower and circle my home like a ring of wagons. Yesterday was warm and blustery, which cautioned me to a night of wind and rain. This morning the leaves that remain on my trees tremble with the vanishing shades of autumn with tones of gold and yellow and orange and red. At the base and throughout my property are puddles of these tones - sodden mesas of fallen glory. The trees are beginning to look naked. It's this time of year when my exquisite forest becomes an enchanting woods. The frivolity sheds to reveal the sinewy strength that lies beneath each leaf, which in turn becomes an engaging metaphor for those who yearn for it. I'm always surrounded by beauty and rarely need to be reminded. It's happiness that's sometimes elusive... but not today