The Last Leaf to Fall

“In every change, in every falling leaf there is some pain, some beauty. And that's the way new leaves grow.”

Amit Ray (born 1960), Indian author and advocate of peace and compassion


There are, literally, just six leaves remaining on my Acer tree. This is one of them, with its many brothers and sisters already beneath it waiting to decay into the earth and help new life to grow in the spring. As I sit here in the gathering evening gloom, the quote from Amit Ray gives me pause for thought. I find it painful to watch that lovely tree shedding its leaves and changing into something bleak and bare, but of course those leaves are at their most vibrant and beautiful in autumn just before falling to the ground. New ones will bud and grow when winter is done, to be enjoyed all over again. Life is never still. Everything changes. We need the dark to prompt us to look for the light. And without some pain in our lives, we wouldn’t fully appreciate the joy.