Now that it’s fall, with cool nights and warm days, something is happening in the backyard, something I longed for all summer long: the grass is growing! I’ve seen it springing up all over the yard, but especially here, where it luxuriates with a few autumn leaves. 

While some homeowners worry about a patch of weeds, here we celebrate a patch of grass. I’d almost forgotten what it looks like, its long thin spears so soft on bare feet, so tempting to trod.

The ongoing lack of grass and subsequent weediness has been through no lack of trying. Seed has been sown, and sown, and sown. But the hard clay soil has seemed impervious to it. All the more reason to be gladdened now — that for some reason, be it rain or chill or slant of sun, the seed has finally taken.

Seeing this patch of grass now, feeling it tender beneath my feet … gives me hope.