In the autumn, new colors appear - yellows, golds, oranges and reds - because the green chlorophyll of summer has drained out of the leaves and gone back into the roots of the tree for the winter. Spiritually, this process represents the movement of the seeker during special times of retreat toward greater interiority and contact with the center of one's being. Just as this movement results in a display of enhanced color in the case of the trees, so the movement toward increased interiority and contemplative inwardness paradoxically manifests the beauty of the seeker in an enhanced way within the world of human society. In other words, the more we live from the core of our being, the more beautiful we appear to others.
Autumn also is the time when these same leaves are eventually released from the tree and fall to the ground. These are, of course, the very leaves that produced nourishment for the tree during the warmer months, and which are therefore indispensible for the continued life of the tree. In the human seeker, this process corresponds to an ability to let go and release to God - to Mother Earth, to the Universe - the very things that nourish us the most, all in the faith that those same things, after a period of inner dormancy, will reappear in the springtime of our lives in a new and fresh way. May all of us find the grace to trust in this cycle of inner seasons. Fall and winter WILL be followed by an inner Spring, despite all appearances to the contrary.
Photo: Narrowleaf Cottonwood trees at Red Mountain Open Space; Larimer County, CO; October 20, 2012
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