Look Around Leaves are brown...

Fall is a beautiful time of year, but in many ways it is one of my least favorites.

The skies have been dark and overcast and it's been drizzling for the last few days. The weather has been cool and it reminds me that Winter is not far behind. (And Winter is my absolute least favorite season.) Yet despite my dislike of what Fall means, I cannot help but be moved as I go past a forest in October and see the many colors of the leaves.

It is not quite a time for reflection. That will come for many of us on the week following Christmas. New Year's Eve is a night I traditionally spend alone, making an entry in my journal. However, Fall can be nature's gentle reminder that change is not only inevitable but sometimes beneficial.

The cool days and less crisp air give me greater clarity of thought as I go on daily walks, which I do as much for exercise as to think The Buddhists talk about the impermanence of all things and that we should not get attached. Now I do not wholly agree with this philosophy, for it is useful to keep some things from the past – but why hold on to things that don't work in our lives?

I am deciding what in my life needs to be shed like the leaves on the trees in the fall. They'll fall away, go through their own winter, and will be replaced by green leaves as I arrive in a new spring, so to speak.

Perhaps if you're ready to change, you could also benefit from this process. Rest assured though, that if you go through a long and bitter winter, things will improve.