I absolutely love Fall days like the ones we had in Philly earlier this week. The leaves that fall from the branches of trees remind me of the gold and red hands of a drum major keeping time. The pale blue sky is the perfect backdrop to the dramatic dance of cotton white clouds. One of the most powerful things about the Fall season is the fact that things die with a sense of hope and expectation of renewal. In my mind, trees shed their leaves—not with finality or sadness—but with nature’s understanding that this dying to itself is part of the process that will ultimately allow it to grow stronger and be even more spectacular come Spring.
And I guess the same should go with us. There will be some nouns in our life (people, places, and things) that will be quite vibrant and in the forefront of one season we’re in…only to turn and die in another. This is particularly true in relationships and some professional undertakings. It’s even more true when it is our own attitudes, behaviors, and ways of thinking that must die. These “deaths” are difficult to embrace and yet if we don’t…we can find ourselves in a perpetual winter, mourning something that was only designed to live for that particular season in our lives. Instead the better approach is what (again maybe only in my tree-hugging mind) nature does and that is to trust God, the Creator of all things, and His purposes.
I’m the type that loves to hold onto stuff. To people. To memories…good and bad. I’m realizing that it is time to allow each season in my life to run its course and allow those things that must die to do so. Of course, like my trees…I can never lose hope. I must always have a mindset of renewal, an expectation of my own personal Spring; an understanding that this is part of the process of me growing and becoming more wise and spectacular with each passing year.
What about you?
TMLG
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