Changes And Colors

It is almost Fall Season. I can hardly believe summer is over. I just completed the annual clothing switch-a-roo (packed away all the summer clothes and unpacked the fall clothes). For the past 2 days now, the air has been brisk and the temperature has been so comfortable the whole day. When I pulled off from the driveway this morning at around past 7:30, it was only 52'F. On my way home from work, it was 78'F... Then I thought of many things why I love Fall season. For two years now my daughters and I had been looking forward for a drive along Blue Ridge Mountains to view the awesome fall colors of the Shenandoah National Park. I wish we would be able to do it this year.

While driving my way to work, I could see the leaves are turning luxuriant autumn shades. Soon they'll be tumbling to the ground from their high perch atop the tree's tall branches. Not that long ago, I was so anxious as I watched tiny green buds began to sprout on the barren branches, heralding the arrival of spring.

Although I dread the thought of depressing gray trees and surrounding, cold weather and shoveling snow in the winter, I love the changing of the seasons. It really doesn’t matter from what season to another, I love the fact that there’s a certainty, a progress to the year that you can count on almost like nothing else in this life. Fall doesn’t care if you’re sad or lonely, it’s coming nonetheless. And winter won’t hold off until you’re feeling less anxious or manic. The seasons will change no matter what happens in our small lives.

Seasons put my life into perspective. I gaze out onto the trees in our backyard and know not only that some of them are older than me, but will be here for many years to come long after I’m gone. It puts some things into perspective for me. A perspective that the older I become, the faster the seasons revolve, progressing almost at a dizzying pace. The bare trees become full of life, luster and hope, only to fade and fall away, returning back to the earth, then gone. Some branches develop a fuller or more colorful foliage than others, but in the end each eventually arrives at the same destination—their final descent to the ground.

As I watch the transforming scenery I am reminded of a beautiful lines I read from a book, "a generation come and go, but the earth stands still forever." The names have changed, and the backdrop may be different. New families have been formed and new children born. Some marriages are successful, and some individuals achieve more colorful accomplishments. But each eventually repeats the cycle of life as love and birth changes season into loss and heartbreak.

Time flies really, really fast. In one blink of an eye, I’ve blown through 10 years in my life. Before I know it, I will be in my 50's, 60's or 70's. Decade pass by so quick.

Through the passage of time, I know I have developed into a stronger person, with deeper convictions and a surer sense of who I am. My goal is to continue evolving and becoming a much better person, standing tall and sure--while awaiting the time when my branches will actually touch the very heavens.