Gone but not forgotten

We took down our deck today... Its been a part of our house for 17 years... we added on to it, subtracted from it, celebrated birthdays, graduations, awards ceremonies, had late night dinners, parties, spent numerous days sunbathing, read the sunday paper... it was a part of our life. Yup a new one will go in its place in a few weeks... but this one is gone.
Now if you think things decompose over time... and return to mother earth... you would be surprised if you saw what was buried under the leaves under our deck... Its was like a living history of our lives... matchbox cars found there way back into the sunlight as the deckboards were removed... pool toys that had been long forgotten, a peice of cardboard with spray paint on it from a High school Physics project, ribbon that stood the test of time that once held ballons to the deck rails, keg cups buried under the leaves still in their package... a dead mouse a recent present from Mr. Wiggles... our lives were well preserved under that deck in small peices. Peices that anyone else would quickly thrown away-- but not me I savored every last scrap.