Learning to Let Them Fall

The other day I saw a video clip of a small child who was crying because her parent told her that the colorful leaves were going to fall. She wept as if she were losing a dear friend. Today, looking out the window at the absent and brown leaves on the trees in my yard, I empathize.

I know the cycle continues, yet loss is always hard. Learning how to live in the present is a lifelong class.

This poem by Danna Faulds speaks to the practice of letting go and moving forward.

"Allow"

by Danna Faulds

There is no controlling life.

Try corralling a lightning bolt,

containing a tornado. Dam a

stream and it will create a new

channel. Resist, and the tide

will sweep you off your feet.

Allow, and grace will carry

you to higher ground. The only

safety lies in letting it all in –

the wild and the weak; fear,

fantasies, failures and success.

When loss rips off the doors of

the heart, or sadness veils your

vision with despair, practice

becomes simply bearing the truth.

In the choice to let go of your

known way of being, the whole

world is revealed to your new eyes.

- Photo taken near The Pines at Davidson, October 2022