Announcing Autumn on my porch,Duranta berries are reminders of the beauty and importance of small things.  Birds love these berries, so I welcome cardinals and mockingbirds as morning visitors.  Their thank you notes trill as they perch on my kitchen windowsill.  I enjoyed the plant’s summer blooms, but the small berries they left are an enchanting reminder of joy we find when we watch for life as it is made up of moments.

 I think of [my life] in all its small component parts: the snowdrops, the daffodils; the feeling of one of my kids sitting close beside me on the couch; the way my husband looks when he reads with the lamp behind him; fettuccine Alfredo; fudge; Gone with the Wind, Pride and Prejudice. Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement.

~ Anna Quindlen, in A Short Guide to a Happy Life