Day 274: Leaves & Wind

There are few things to me more romantic for some reason than leaves and wind coming together in unison. The sounds, the smells, the visions they create are entirely unique, and they have never failed to lift my spirits each fall. Make no mistake about it, I'm completely a summer person. I live for the temperature rising above 80 and staying there. But the fall has it merits. Even a cynical, snow hater like me can admit that. The leaves may signal winter is soon to rear it's ugly face, but that doesn't mean I don't love their beauty. That doesn't mean I can't appreciate the dance they do with the wind sweeping them up. That doesn't mean I can see the leaves for the simple but endlessly joyful gift they are. 

This morning, the combination of wind and leaf infinitely brightened up my otherwise mundane ride to school and then work. As I drove down the roadways of Lincoln, that combination circled my cars windows. They passed in front and under me. They kicked up excitement. They motivated me to take to the woods to see and feel more. It was pretty much all I could do not to open the door and reach out to let my hands scoop up a handful of brown, rusted leaves just to feel them crunch in my grasp. 

The swirling and twirling and whirling of leaves are pretty much the essence of fall. They represent death, but they also represent chaos and hysteria. They present utter change. The leaves and wind present the old being ushered out in anticipation of the new. The dark before the storm. The labor before the birth. 

Nature puts it all right there in front of our eyes, if only we look. A different gift every day. Different interpretations. Different meanings. Different representations. What the leaves me to me probably aren't what they mean to you. The power of the mind. The power of nature to influence the mind. The power of being an individual.