Autumn woes

Autumn is a beautiful season here in Barona and the Midwest in general. The trees are turning lovely yellows, oranges, reds and purple. The air is brisk and skies clear -- when it's not raining!

Even so, there is a sadness to the season that seems to go beyond just shorter days and less sunlight. The leaves that fall are beautiful and they swirl in the wind like confetti at a party. But they are signs of dying. Soon the colors will be gone and the branches will be stark and gray until snow comes to whiten them for a bit.

Damien reminds me that nature's lesson is that nothing dies, nothing is lost. Things change, things transition. The leaves that fall become food for little beasties and what was once vegetable becomes animal and that then dies and decays and becomes vegetable after passing through who knows how many stages. The cycle goes on.

Each step has its beauty if we look for it. These days lots of things make me see the ugliness behind the beauty in the world. I need to learn to see the beauty behind the ugliness behind the beauty behind ... well, you get it.