Changing

The weather is noticeably changing.
It is not so much the temperature---it was quite warm today---but something about the quality of the air.
I was walking before dusk around the little lake in its park, when suddenly, with no warning, a huge bough simply fell off a very tall tree.  No-one was beneath it, or even nearby; and I may have been the only one to see it fall.  It felt like a declarative statement.  I continued to walk, to greet folks and their dogs, to watch the geese circle and land in the water, and a lone fish jump.  
I continued on to the newly opened market for a few items, and ended up talking to a woman working in the produce section.  Her husband had died a few years ago.  Then she showed me photos of her horse, her dog---her guy.  We spoke, appreciated, shared, hugged, cried.  Then she went back to work, and I to shop.  Something felt so normal---then I realized:  when I lived in Israel, I had these deep encounters with strangers every day.  
Only here is it considered unusual to touch each other's hearts all the time.
Wishing us all a good shabbos.