Fallen leaves

The other day I went outside to sweep off our deck. Brown leaves that had fallen off the trees were literally scattered all over the place. They were so deep in places that we could barely walk through them and I had just swept that same deck off just days before.

All of those brown leaves caused me to start thinking about the different color leaves that you see in the fall. There are yellow, red, purple, orange and, of course, brown ones like I swept off my deck. Lots of folks go to the mountains in the fall of the year just to see those beautiful colors. If you can’t make it to the mountains; however, I think that there is no more beautiful sight than riding up Highway 73 towards Mt. Gilead if you want to view the leaves as they show their different colors.

All of those other colors are actually there in the leaf all of the time but cannot be seen until the green pigment ebbs from the leaf. Carotenoids which produce yellow, orange and brown colors are present in leaf cells throughout the growing season, but they’re masked by the green pigment. The anthocyanin pigments give red and purple color to autumn leaves.

It seems that as winter descends, trees in cold areas must reduce themselves down to their toughest parts – stems, trunks, branches and bark. This means that the leaves must fall because the fluids that flow through them are thin and susceptible to freezing the tender tissues. The winter cold dooms the leaves and trees save energy by getting rid of them.

When I think about the yellow leaves, I’m reminded of sunshine and that makes me smile. Back when our daughter was small, we painted her room yellow. It seems a survey we heard about said the color yellow would cause a child to have a sunny disposition. I don’t know if that helped her disposition or not, but I do think yellow is a happy color. Don’t you think so too?

Webster’s describes orange as reddish yellow. So, if you combine red and yellow, you get orange. When I think of the color orange, the fruit we call orange always comes to mind. I just love eating oranges, especially this time of year when I feel I need to get lots of Vitamin C without getting it in pill form.

The color red can be a spread of colors from that of blood to pale rose or pink. I don’t think most of us like to think of blood red as a color, but I know that it is. I much prefer to think about the different colors of roses which are anywhere from dark red to different shades of pink. I have always loved roses and it doesn’t really matter what color they are. I’ll take ‘em in any color. I especially love to see them grow but they also look beautiful in a vase.

The color purple is a dark color that is a blend of red and blue. Purple is known as the color of royalty. Also, purple is usually the favorite color of most little girls. Sometimes they grow out of that and sometimes they don’t.

The color brown is described as having the color of chocolate or coffee. It is a combination of red, black and yellow. I like to think of it as chocolate since I dearly love that stuff. I don’t like coffee at all so I won’t even think about that as a color.

When I think about all the colors I’ve described, I can’t help but compare those leaves to our lives as human beings. When we are young, we’re sorta like those green leaves that are just budding out in the spring. We are tender and naïve and just feeling our way out and about in the world. We don’t know yet what we’re going to do with our lives, but we have a lot of potential to grow up and do big things.

In the summertime, those green leaves are all grown out making the tree full and beautiful. When we humans are in the summertime of our lives, we are all grown up and usually living our lives to the fullest. We’re busy, busy, busy and always wide open and on the go. The sap’s up and we’re going strong just like a tree.

In the autumn, those leaves start falling off the trees because the sap is down. It seems like when the sap starts going down in us humans, we start a slowing down process. It takes us longer to do things than it did when we were younger, and we cannot hold out to do quite as much as we did before.

In the winter, if there are any leaves left on the trees, they are definitely chocolate colored. They are dry and there is no fluid in them at all. By wintertime in our lives, our skin is dried out and if we’re still hanging in there like a brown leaf, it is usually by the hair of our chinny, chinny chin.

Looking back now, I realize that life is short. When you get old like I am, you wonder where your life went. One day you’re young and in your prime and before you can turn around, you’re old like you remember your grandma. We should make our lives count while we are here on this earth and strive to do good to others, so we’ll be remembered with love and affection when we’re gone.

It would be sad to be remembered like the words in this song:

“Fallen leaves that lie scattered on the ground. The birds and flowers that were here cannot be found. All the friends she ever had are not around. They are scattered like the leaves upon the ground.”