Fall at Mills College: Halloween

It is Fall at Mills College. The leaves on the deciduous trees are swiftly turning and branches stand stark and naked. The remaining threads of chlorophyll look like tie dye on a hippie's T-shirt...a popular costume for Halloween this year in the East Bay.

It was not so long ago! Or maybe it was...I was a child of the 60's. I remember making bell-bottoms by splitting the seams, shopping at thrift stores, my mom sprouting alpha and making homemade yogurt, composting...and of course her garden.

My mom let me dig rivers in her rose bed, make mud pies in her cookware, and decorate with flowers from the lantana. She let me run barefoot through the babies tears that ran shin deep on the side of the house, cool and soft on my barefeet on hot summer days. We ran the sprinkler to play in just for fun, and grew strawberries to pick and eat warm in the sun.

Mom reveled in my childhood fantasies. She never yelled or fretted when I played with bees or sat high in the avocado tree pretending I was an elf and the limbs my home. That sense of peace, of oneness, the escape from worldly cares is still there, awaiting in my garden - in all the gardens I love. And for that alone, I am forever grateful to my Mom.

Secret pathways and hidden fountains, miniature oak forests and flocks of birds, inhabit Mills College.