Today, I’d like to go back to the Gulf.

It’s been a warm & windy week, the kind where you can shut your eyes & almost forget you’re landlocked in Tennessee. Behind closed lids I’m in paradise, on the shores in Alabama, on the edge of the earth.

But today it’s cold again. The few fall days we’ve had have felt more like winter. In this windy city, the red & yellow leaves of November don’t stand a chance, & branches are already almost bare. Now, more than ever, I’m rewinding to this day of rest. The wind there was warm & salty; the sand, soft. On the beach with my grandmother, the world stops spinning so fast.