Musings: Leaves Fall-ing

Oct 1, 2024 - 13:21
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Musings: Leaves Fall-ing

By Rev Dr K M George

THIS morning, walking along a solitary path that borders a forest strip on one side and a  little clear stream on the other, I collected several fallen leaves (see the picture). This is  an English countryside, not far from Swindon, and the season is autumn. The gaiety of a lively summer has given way to wet, windy, and chilly autumn. 

The word ‘autumn’ has the root meaning ‘harvest’ while ‘Fall’, in American English, is literally true to the seasonal falling of leaves in preparation for winter.  By the shedding of leaves, like tears, the trees seem to be wailing as they anticipate the “dead of winter”. They would soon be stripped bare of their glorious vestments of vital foliage, and forced to stand like skeletal shadows, utterly naked in the freezing cold of dark winter.

On the one hand, it is quite natural that Autumn in the northern hemisphere is associated with feelings of sadness and impending death. (I am also attaching a page from my diary sketchbook that made some friends sad).

On the other hand, we may celebrate in all joy the sight of the arboreal landscapes that turn golden yellow and red, ochre and crimson dotted with fading green and ogling black. In the best of terms,  if you are poetically inclined you may also listen to the
“The whispers of the autumn breeze“...
”tenderly, as in a lover's ear“. (Wordsworth).

Altogether the blazing colours conspire to lift the human spirit rather than dampen it.

The whole scenario can be taken as a metaphor for life. Seen from geological, biological and cosmological perspectives, human life on earth is just a very negligible, tiny, transient, recent occurrence in cosmic history though we describe our history in great eras of evolution and epochs of seemingly infinite span.

Dramatic geological and cosmic catastrophes, apart from man-made ecological disasters, can wipe out life on earth in no time.

Whatever that be, it is in our power to rejoice in and celebrate life in all its hues, knowing very well that it is fleeting like autumn colours. Such celebration of life can evoke new meaning and fresh openings in our lives if it is done in all simplicity and sobriety, in spiritual sensitivity to the dignity and justice for the other, to nature‘s beauty and Mother Earth’s ecological predicament.

We on earth are facing a terrible winter of desolation, if not total annihilation, with warmongers and power brokers on the rise. This is all the more reason for us to celebrate the passing splendour of Fall in joy, gratitude and love as a metaphor for life.