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| Photo: Nancy Bauer, OSB |
I have been picking up leaves lately. It is the season, of
course, to wonder and explore the beauty of each leaf. Each one carries
its own color and design, yet collectively they radiate the splendor and
beauty of God’s creation. Paradoxically this collective
beauty ushers in the season of bleakness and desolation.
Yet we can’t forget how each leaf started and was
born. It was a tiny unfurling bud and beauty that sparkled in the
sun. It strove for the light, reaching up through the canopy of branches
and fluttered in the wind. Then one day it had grown old and was losing its
hold on the branch that had carried it, its family. The tree that had sustained
it began to direct its nutrients to other newer leaves and gradually its hold
became weaker and weaker until finally it had to let go and it fell and floated
to the earth, to feed the very tree that gave it life in its death.
The perfect balance of sun, wind and water that the leaf had thrived and lived
and died in ... When I contemplate the grove of trees or the forest, there
are millions of leaves, millions of perfectly balanced evolving little lives of
perfectly circular motions of nature. Yet I realize that I am following exactly
the same journey. I am always amazed how nature shares the deeper
incarnational truths of our spiritual journey and our need for balance and
perspective. So when it’s your time to let go- do the leaf jiggle, the
hip hop dance, or float in serenity to continue the cycle of life – there is a
season for everything.
Trish Dick, OSB
