The morning temperature of fifty-nine degrees represents a departure from the norm in Southern Maryland. Typically, it’s warm and humid, and folks look forward to another day of oppressive Mid-Atlantic heat.

However, I will enjoy the comfortable weather since Mother Nature has a sense of humor and may send the temperature back to normal, or even higher, tomorrow. The cooler weather reminds me autumn is around the corner. Autumn already. “Where has the year gone? It seems like we just celebrated Independence Day, Mothers Day, Christmas. Life passes so fast.”

Life passes so fast. Each sunrise brings me one sunset closer to the autumn of my life. My summer is drawing to a close. My graying temples will soon resemble a snow cap, my bones protest the cold. My mind, though, remains the same age as always: ageless. My thoughts, my wonders, my impressions, never lose their elasticity. They are the most active, most unchanging part of me. Our souls don’t age, and the mirrors of our eyes reflect that timelessness.

Our souls don’t age. As I pass from summer to autumn, I grow closer to my past. Memories become more precious with each passing day, with each passing moment. The yesterdays of my life seem so recent, as though they occurred in a dream last night.

A dream last night. I think of all the friends of my life, all the events, all the joys and sorrows, the wins and losses. They are the building blocks that made me who I am. I want to meet, I want to relive, I want to revel in each again.

I want to relive each moment. But the past is done, the past is gone. I can’t reclaim it. I can’t catch the dust scattered by the winds of time, or retrace footsteps washed away by the sea. I remember, though, as I sit on my front porch and watch the approach of autumn, and beyond that, winter. I remember spring and summer, my friends, my triumphs, my family, my loves. I remember them in a mind that never ages, through eyes that see them as clear today as when they saw them yesterday.