Trees Shedding Leaves

By Larry Tyler Columnist & Featured Contributor, BIZCATALYST360.com

It has been a season of falling leaves from the brilliant colors of autumn where the colors took your breath away and made you want to walk down dirt roads, dog by your side. The nights brought warm fires outside sitting together with warm sweaters and hot chocolate. The falling leaves seem to bring a soothing peace to our life.

Then the air turns from cool to bitterly cold. The leaves have all fallen leaving a barren tree line that seems haunted when silhouetted against the full moon. There are no secrets now; they have no place to hide. The cold draws us inside by the window. We are reflective, reading more, writing more.

We feel content with the grey, not yet looking toward spring but relaxing into a contemplative mood. The cold seems to take us more inside ourselves. I read more, yet slowly embracing the words, letting them touch me deeply. I find Thoreau, Blake, and Emerson appealing and they touch the lost poet in me. While they are often dark I find comfort in their words.

Like the fallen leaves the winter makes us bare our soul as if we have nothing to hide or no secrets to tell. We stay up late letting the candle burn low. The pages of our book unturned as we immerse ourselves into the flame. The room darkens until only that one flame commands the room. It is no longer ambiance but a supernova burning brightly, and then fades to black.

In truth, there is beauty in the fallen leaves and trees with limbs laid bare. They hold an honesty of purpose knowing they have cleaned the slate creating aTabula rasa, a blank canvas that nature will use to bring leaves back to the trees and flowers to the garden. Then the birds will return and enchant us with their songs.

Point Of View

We do need to embrace the fallen leaves so that we may lie bare, our true self. Only then will we find imagination and creativity in our life. It is a time to embrace who we are and prepare for the abundant gifts that life may bring to us. This helps us to thrive in our business life with innovation and be a change advocate filled with new drive and energy. In our personal life spring is the catalyst for renewed love. It fires a passion to help others and give back to our community. Most of all it is a time to take a walk down a dirt road with our dogs in tow.