Never-ending Story

This photo was taken three years ago on a beautiful November morning in Skyline Chestnut Farm in La Honda, California. At the time, it felt like just another weekend spent with family and friends—lively, happy, but nothing out of the ordinary. The sun was shining, the air was crisp, the leaves were golden brown and rustling under our feet. My younger son, 4 at the time, was stumbling over the roots of 150-year-old chestnut trees as he ran to show off his bucket full of bounty. And my oldest, then 8, had found in the midst of it all a quiet nook in which to read a book: an abandoned car, probably left there many years ago, so rusty that it blended with the natural background. I watched my boy, shoulders relaxed and a look of concentration on his face, as he leaned back on the roof of the car and quietly flipped the pages. And just like that, a feeling of overwhelming happiness crept over me, as it does every time I look at this picture.