Golden Boy

It is fall, and even though not much changes here, the light becomes low and golden. I feel like every season is my favorite time of year when it arrives, but this time, I really mean it. Here is a beautiful tree of gold from a trip to Japan, and here’s a post I wrote about that tree, another moment of golden light. I fell in love in Japan. He was older, and so very tall. There was a glow about him, warm as sunshine. I could have sat and watched him for hours. Even though we didn’t have that much time together, I knew I would never forget him. He was so present, so grounded. Resilient after years of living, marked by all of the storms, both meteorologic and political, that he had weathered. And so alone—not just on that path near Nijo Castle, but in the world. He had no living relatives. On a family tree, he would sit on a distant, dangling branch, separated from his kin by millions of years. And there was something about this solitude that was irresistible, too. The ginkgo tree is an…