The walk today brought crunching on the sidewalk with the dried curled up leaves.  Leaves littering tops of bushes, piled up in the gutter, cluttering the lawns.  It happens each year with regularity.  It happens without tears, whining or heartache.  The trees are very matter of fact about this shedding.  They may flash us with bright shocking colors, but they don’t compete or compare or posture about it.

Us humans, on the other hand, have a hard time with “leavings.”  Children leave and mothers spend months weeping and fighting the depressing hole in their lives with this nest now seemingly useless and empty.  Job sites are abandoned, offices echo with the lost waves of co-workers.  Dogs die, even after long loving lives.  Parents expire and we can’t even get pity in our old age feeling like true orphans.

I lean against the Tree of Life and breathe in Her wisdom.  The truth about human feelings, and the Truth about endless love that is never lost and never leaves.