October

Hello, October.  You've snuck up on me again.  You're clever like that.

So, here is the fall.  Summer went and winter is coming, and that is how life is.  My kids are growing.  They need me a bit less - and that's the tricksy part, that.  They need me, yes.  They love me, yes.  They no longer fill every waking moment and now that they have scampered off down the hall to make a world between only them, quiet descends...

Sort of.  There's the occasional squeal of bad temper from the little one, followed a moment later by her laughter.  And there is the sourceless, endless percussion that comes from having a healthy, happy boy in the house. 

...and in the quiet, my arms are empty, and my hands are still.  Until a finger twitches, and then another.

I reach for a pen.