Falling: Life and Death

 So i am a Texas girl living in Minnesota . . . So Fall is still a unique experience. I noticed the leaves changing colors when i was on contract in North Carolina. I took in the beautiful colors everywhere i went. Every time. It was beautiful and it was beauty that I saw as someone who did not live there that most others no longer saw. They just took them in as normal. But as a Texan these colors were far from normal.

Fast forward a few years and seasons of life and I find myself living in Minnesota. I live on 10 acres and walk out of my front door and look out at the bluffs with a rainbow of colors of various types of trees. Deep green of the ever green trees, red, orange and yellow. All trees beautiful on their own but the compilation of gods creations . . . Breathtaking.

But then I look more closely — brown, dead, crunchy leaves. Trees seemingly void of life. Letting go of what were its vibrant green leaves, almost looking sad, naked, vulnerable. It feels sad. It feels like life sometimes. Beaten by the elements. Not having enough in you to hold it together. Looking so different from those around. Feeling seen for what you don’t have rather than what you do. Nearby there is a bright green bush with vibrant pink flowers blooming, almost mockingly. But it is just a bush. And the current season that it is in is different. It is made different and is blooming without any ill intent. The contrast here shook me a bit out of nowhere.

In a season where one feels almost devoid of life. Where you cant hold on to everything that you want to but cant. In a season where from your perspective everyone else around you is thriving and you are just falling apart. Remember that what feels like falling apart could be exactly what god has planned for you. Some trees lose their leaves to save the core of who they are. To allow for blooming in the following season. To allow for growth and healing during the difficult times. This isn’t a sign of weakness or death but of strength and life. What a gift to so easily let go of the things that do not serve you in a season that you may thrive and flourish in the next. Rather it is your perspective or someone else’s that diminishes the growth that occurs when it looks like death, like the trees do with leaves . . . Let it go.Things change. Sometimes that looks like a beautiful bouquet of spring flowers. Other times it looks like a prism of colors of trees on the bluffs. But with the changing of colors comes loss and letting go. And while that may look like piles of dead leaves on the ground and naked, lifeless appearing trees towering above, they may only continue to tower and grow when they let things go and die. In death is life and in life is death. We must remember that there is beauty in it all and learn to appreciate that.

Much like in North Carolina . . . I was able to sit in traffic and enjoy the beauty around me while others only saw the traffic because they had become blind to what was just beyond the next car. May we all be able to see just beyond. To feel the warmth in the cool breeze and the beauty in every season. Knowing that there is growth, healing and purpose in it all.