lifetime of memories

November
So full of milestones
my birthday (today)
my son's birthday ( my youngest- turned fourteen on the 8th- OMG!)
Freedom Day (the day my divorce was finalized- the 3rd). 
I missed Freedom Day this year with all the craziness
that tailspins me around from one thing to another.
My son's birthday was awhirl with life stuff (fourteen-year-olds will do some dumb stuff.)
And my birthday sandwiched between two days of work
Nevertheless
November is a lodestone
of the past
Mimosas and cheesecake,
    favorite foods
Walking out of the courthouse,
    dance-down-the-street happiness that it was finally finished
Son sleeping in my arms
    trashcan close by to catch any upheavals
    while friends eat cake and laugh in hilarity
Being dressed like a doll (I hate shopping!)
    a fourth decade dragging me down,
    reminding me of opportunities dried up and carried off the wind
Bearing down, pushing,
     finding life altered once more with a bleated cry
Pecan pie eaten in a dorm room
Snowplowing my way home
     a surprise blizzard gifting me with the day off (DPS hadn't cancelled school in 20 years!)
A slammed door as whispered conspiracies shut me out
   exclusion burying the giggly companionship
Watching for a package laden postman (Mrs. Beasley in a box)
     anxious nose pressed against the glass
Many more
Memories
carried in the leaf blown arms of
November