Thanks for everything

As the leaves start turning colour here in southwest Ontario, Canada, which usually happens just before the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday, it triggers in me a strong sense of gratitude and joy.  I looooooove colour, the brighter and more vivid and varied, the better.  Much of my art and photography is strongly coloured, and it feels sometimes like I could probably tone down the saturation, based on what I see others doing.  Toning it down just seems wrong.  When the world around me is so brightly lit, that's how it should be shared.

Until I met (online) a number of people from other areas of the world that are not blessed with the magic of the maple tree, which is the primary contributor to autumn colour here, I thought this changing of the seasons from summer to fall happened everywhere that there were trees.  Now I know differently.  And now that I have an opportunity to capture it and share the magic, I fully intend to do just that.

Every day feels like a new beginning, I see things a little more clearly than the day before, there is more love and joy surrounding me, even though I still wake up alone each day, and while many associate autumn with the ending of live vegetation (or at least dormancy) and the coming of winter, I sense the wonder of the lifecycle as a whole.  Ebb and flow, death and rebirth, everything in nature has a cycle of some kind and for this I am truly grateful.

What does this have to do with thanks?  All of this change strikes in me how precious and fleeting each moment is, and that the old adage "stop and smell the roses" becomes more and more meaningful as time passes.  Recent exploration and adoption of daily meditation and mindfulness practices have brought out in me how strongly important it is to truly appreciate every moment for the beauty in it, because right now, this moment, is the only thing we have any control over.  We cannot change the future except by what we do right now.  We cannot change the past except by how we deal with it - either by choosing to learn from it and change our current behaviours to avoid making similar mistakes, or by choosing to believe that we did not have control over it then, and must therefore blame someone else for our current circumstance.  The latter has no benefit, especially since no one is to "blame", we must take ownership of every moment of our lives, past present future, because we are the ones living that moment.  No one said it was easy, but then, my guess is that it's not easy to change colour when you are a leaf stuck to a tree.

I've noticed in the past few years that it seems the leaves that change colour first are the ones that are hit by the sun first thing in the morning after a frost.  Let's ponder that for a moment.  How cool is that?  A killing frost covers a leaf, and instead of dying and falling to the ground, it bathes in sunlight and dresses up beautifully and shares it's glory with the world.

How wonderful is this lesson!  And this is the reason I become so grateful in the autumn.  For all the leaves that have been hit with something deadly, and shone even more brightly to show the world that they have contributed to the life of the tree they are borne from, provided nourishment in it's sunlight factory, contributed to the rest of the world by exchanging carbon dioxide into oxygen, completely selfless acts and receiving nothing but a killing blow from frost.  And still at the end of each leaf's life, it does it's best to bask in the light and turn it into a pageant of oranges, reds, yellows and browns that everyone loves.

I am grateful for:  family (the leaves around me), friends (the leaves on other trees), colour, health (I have only just started turning colour and have much to share before falling to the ground), Light especially sunlight for the life it gives, the cycles of nature that provide us with these important lessons in life and life-giving and life-sharing, the beauty of each moment.  Thank you to whomever or whatever (God, universe, life force, source of energy, whichever you believe in) has given us all these things, even though some choose to ignore it or not believe in it.  Thanks for everything.