Sunday, November 2, 2014

Silent Melody

As the sun rose this morning, the leaves of the maple tree in my backyard started to fall. The air was still, but nevertheless, one by one the leaves let go of the branches that gave them life and they drifted down in the sunlight to the ground below.

Unlike the random leaves that have been falling for the past few days, these were falling at a steady pace. Not constant, like a machine, but in a sort of rhythm like they're responding to melody of a song only they can hear.

Sitting in the sunlight, I watched them through my patio doors for close to an hour, just enjoying the tranquility of falling leaves as nature announces the end of autumn by knitting an orange and brown blanket to cover the ground before winter comes. Getting up to get a cup of tea, I noticed the maple tree in the front yard just starting to do the same, the sun having risen just enough that its rays have finally cleared the building. Then the maple tree across the driveway joined in, and I craned my neck to see more maples starting to shed their leaves as well.

Returning to my seat I could see the maples at the church a half a block away doing likewise. It's as if all the maple trees in the neighbourhood came to a silent agreement that today was the day to play the song of autumn's end.

There was a momentary breeze, and instead of a large cascade, hardly any leaves fell at all. Once the breeze faded the leaves started falling again as they were before. The breeze returned and has been blowing for a half hour now and since then nary a leaf has fallen. Perhaps leaves prefer to die with dignity on their own terms rather than let external forces take that choice away from them. I guess that's something leaves and people have in common.

 

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