Morning Headline: Incredible Early-Season Snow Slams the Southeast.

The National Weather Service reported that 22" fell at Mt. Le Conte in Tennessee's Smoky Mountains, with waist high drifts there.

The weather was weird in Asheville, too.

We woke up to lots of snow, way too early in the year, I'd say. And there must have been at least four inches on our back deck. Sticking.

The sun did not show up and the air was cold enough for the snow to stay all day. Melting usually follows snow in November.

Very unusual. What is going on?

"God," said writer Corrie ten Boom, "raises the level of the impossible."

As the day progressed, the wind howled more and the trees swayed. The leaves fell like confetti. Non-stop, like God was throwing an autumn party.

And of course I was outside clicking my camera because of Nature's show. I lucked out and got some nice shots, including this Asphalt Leaf Quilt which serendipitously formed next to my rose bush out front...

Outside felt like I was walking in a miracle. And the earth felt like a living soul.

As psychiatrist Carl Jung once said, "Learn your theories as well as you can, but put them aside when you touch the miracle of a living soul."

I have spent days with the spent foliage in my top garden, digging, chopping, and gathering debris in my wheel barrow, then hauling it down to the back of my property. Cleaning and feeling pleased with my work.

I practice mindfulness while working. I pray, too, and listen to the sounds of my garden, smell the fragrances. My fingers feel the dirt, as do my feet, my entire body.

Yes, I do enjoy this autumn landscape, getting down to the landscape's bone structure, all the while preparing for winter dormancy and what is to come.

With all these thoughts, all these leaves, Carl Sandburg comes to mind: "Let a joy keep you. Reach out your hands and take it when it runs by."

Open your heart to Autumn's soul.

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