Seasons

The little leaf clung tenaciously to the branch of the old gnarled tree it had called home for so many months. The warm winds and gentle rains of the Spring and Summer were gone. In their place was a wind that was hard and cold. The rains that now came pelted its little leaf body as if it were being stoned for some unforgivable transgression. It looked around and saw so many empty places where its friends had hung for so long. One by one he saw them let go and flutter away to places unknown. Why didn't they hang on was the question so prevalent in his little leaf mind. A question that seemed to have no answer. He asked the old gnarled tree but the tree seemed to be in a deep sleep. The sap of the old tree that ran so plentiously feeding him and keeping him green and soft was now gone. He was hungry but there was nothing for him to partake of. His green color had been replaced with a dull brown. His soft flexible structure was now stiff and crackly. He was tired. He wanted so much to just sleep for a little while. Maybe a short nap would make him feel better, stronger. He closed his little leaf eyes and sighed with relief as sleep came immediately. A wind came by and the little leaf, in quiet repose, left his grip on the branch called home and fluttered to places unknown. He was at peace with no need to fight to hang on any longer.

But little did the leaf know that he would return again in the Spring when the warm winds blew and the soft rains would once again come to open the harden ground of Winter. The tree would again awaken from its deep slumber, the sap would again run plentiously and the buds of the tree's residents would again make their debut. The birds would again begin building their nests sheltered within the many leaves positioned on the branches of the old tree. Another cycle of life had happened.

And so it is with humans as well. Life comes with its cold winds and hard rains. We think that because it is a Winter of our lives that we will never see another Spring. But we too have our cycles of life. To have a Winter means we have had a Spring. To have a Spring means we have had a Winter. As natures has its seasons for a purpose so do we have seasons for a purpose. Let's look to our seasons and know they never last forever. Winter into Spring, Spring into Summer, Summer into Fall, Fall into Winter........yes, the cycle of life continues.