Colors

God knows how much I love the autumn. I laid down in the back yard today in a pile of beautiful leaves on top of still green grass. Sometimes I feel like this year's in Germany was made just for me. The landscape is much like home with the rolling hills and mountains in the backdrop. But the leaves are a colors that I have never seen before. The once vermillion reds have come up to a distinct crimson, almost chestnut in hue now. The brave reds are the first to fall this year onto the earth. The orange appears be next, its once saffron color is now wheaten. Last hanging on for the season in this chilly November is yellow. It is still bright as a dandelion, showing no signs of hindrance for its beloved losses of red and orange friends. The amazing thing about these leaves is that even on the ground, brown, and forgotten, they still show glimmers of life with green peeking out on the stems or edges. They have a life and a mind of their own, I am playfully convinced.

I watched the sunset at 5:05 PM today.  Usually my melancholy kicks in and I distract myself with happy music or fix myself a cup of tea, but tonight, I watched the sun go all the way down. Of course the sky itself was a beautiful mix of violet and orange, but the landscape itself always transforms into what I think are the most magnificent colors. The trees and remaining leaves glimmered with a copper-like radiance as the departing sun illuminated from behind. Just when I did not think it could look any more stunning, the sun disappeared and the dusk's sapphire overtook the copper. Finally the darkness from the sky surrounded me with a chill in the air and the first few stars began to appear in the sky. "I wonder what tomorrow's leaves will look like," I said to myself. After I got up and brushed myself off with a couple of remaining leaves in my hair, I noticed that no melancholy had even attempted to approach me. I accepted the sunset and the leaves falling, so why is it any different with my own life?

Change is a part of nature, accepted with grace. If I stand still, everything else continues to move, shift, change, fall, die, and become new once again. If I change with it, exploring, respecting, loving passionately, I can appreciate so much more about myself and others in this short, beautiful life. Ah, what a wonderful world...