LEARNING FROM THE FALLEN LEAVES

Walking in the wilderness in the late summer and autumn, you’ll feel the crackling of the fallen leaves.

I really recommend walking barefoot if you can, even just for a few moments.

It is such a pleasant sensation, to feel like you are mashing this brittle texture with your feet, softly pushing it towards the earth with every step. Just one of my favourite activities… 

Nature has so many sensorial experiences to offer us, and so many lessons as well. All it takes to acquire wisdom is to take the time to observe Nature, like our ancestors did. To walk through Nature, not with the mindset of a conqueror, with a specific goal in mind - but with a beginner’s mind - a wanderer that explores without a destination. Sometimes exploring means to sit and look at the simplest of things, like the forest floor.

The forest floor is a whole poetry of its own. A living organism, absorbing all decaying life and turning it into rich fragrant soil that will nourish the many networks of trees and beings that reside here. It is the black gold of death and rebirth. 

In the fall, we notice the passage of life from the heights of the sky to the forest floor, as the leaves fall from the trees. The humble, dying leaves have a lot to teach us, particularly about surrender.

As I sit and watch the leaves on the forest floor, I notice that some of them are still intact in their shape, others have become tiny little fragments. That image carries a powerful message, about the inevitability of our fate as living beings. About the certainty that we are destined to leave our physical bodies and return to Source. And while that may not be tomorrow, there is medicine in being ok with that idea. That level of surrender is what will allow us to feel free and light here and now, as a leaf falling from a tree.

Our human condition can often lead us to feel heavy. Burdened with what responsibilities we think we have, living on this Earth. We get to experience a lot of anxiety about the future, and that affects our present with a lot of suffering. We feel like we must control things. We grip for rewards and look to be validated. We want to be recognized. We want to be remembered. We want to leave a legacy. We want to feel like we are making a difference, because without that, what is the point of being alive?

And yet the falling leaves come to show us the most absolute Truth, beyond our frantic state of illusion. Beyond our ego’s dialog and that voice that keeps telling us that we are alone, separate from all of life, that we “must” be something.

A leaf just is, in its effortless Nature, a leaf. It came to existence as one leaf among other leaves, that is part of a unified consciousness that is the tree. The tree is part of the unified consciousness that is the forest. The forest is a tiny part of the greater whole that makes our Earth and the Cosmos. A leaf is not concerned about being remembered. A leaf does not experience anxiety about its identity, or its impact in the spectrum of its life. It knows it is here to be a leaf, unique in its spirit and yet part of this Greater Whole. It doesn’t need to seek, to grip, to control. It doesn’t need to seek out any purpose other than just Being as it is designed to. It creates, just by Being. Is IS, just by Being. 

And when its time comes, it will fall, ever so lightly onto the forest floor. To return to the Source.

The simple poetry of the falling leaves and shift that happens in the fall season is there to remind us that we are more than just the endless stories of our minds. 

That we can - and should - practice surrendering. The fall comes before the Winter (the season of Death) as an initiation, inviting us into a soft release, like the leaf about to fall from the tree. 

By acknowledging and coming to terms with our fate, we realise that we are whole, just as we are. Always have been. There’s no point in gripping. There’s nothing left to do than just Be.

What is the point of always running, when we can just Be?

Let the falling leaves be our humble teachers. May they inspire us into freeing ourselves from fear and delusion.

May they show us how to let go, and how to just Be, in our effortless Nature. We do not need to seek a purpose or valid reason to exist. We are already part of this, just as we are.