The Significance of Fall

I wonder, after being in a place where seasons are fleeting, if even existent, if my circadian rhythms have missed the significance of Fall, all of these years… and I’m sure I’ll feel the same way about winter.  Can you fully appreciate Spring when you haven’t fully experienced winter?

Looking around at the changing leaves and the falling leaves, there is something so symbolic and refreshing and… sad about Fall: shed, let go, don’t be afraid to change, fore it’s inevitable; Fall into a different place/level of existence, trusting what fell was meant to Fall away and have faith more leaves will return in all of their glory to provide shade and style when the warmth and the heat arrive again.  

There’s absolute beauty in change, in transformation.  People travel specifically to experience, in all its glory, the transformation of trees in the fall.  We honor, marvel, revere, make pilgrimages to witness the changing of the colors of the leaves on trees, right before they are released: right before they all Fall, descend off the trees.  The loss of color, in all its magnificent glory, is a signal to the world: we no longer need these leaves, they will not serve me/us in the coming season.  My color changing is the retraction of my resources, my energy.  It’s me letting go, letting what no longer serves me and my journey to Fall away, Fall down, Fall _______.  Isn’t it beautiful?  Beautifall?

We often become suspicious or self-conscious or fearful when those around us begin to transform or enter their season of Fall.  What if we learn we are one of the leaves in need of shedding?  If they are changing, what does that say, signal to me?  About me?  It would be so much easier, pleasant, less lonely, if our personal ecosystems all followed the same schedule of seasons- we would be less apt to question each other's changes in the same way; less afraid of each other’s personal Fall.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if we all marveled at each other’s Fall like we do the leaves during this season?  With splendor?  With gratitude?  With appreciation?  Absent of fear?  Abundant with Wonder?

We all know, trust, believe, without question, new leaves will emerge in time.  They will be bountiful and full of energy, stretching, without hesitation, toward the sun, the light.  The leaves of Fall go back into the Earth-energy returned to nourish rich soil.  Trust that after the falling of the non essential, the bounty will spring forth into existence… 

…as nature, God, the Universe, the Divine, always intended.  Isn’t She wonderful?  Wonderfall?