Does a tree say to leaves turning golden in July, “Stop! Go back to green! It’s not time to change seasons yet! It’s not time to bring out your autumn wardrobe of many colours.”
Or does it embrace nature’s ways with grace and ease? Accepting that all things happen in their own time. All things unfold as they are meant to unfold. Because, the trees know, they are not separate from nature. They are one with all of life on earth.
There are glimmers of gold in the trees this morning. Buffalo berries glow bright red in the bushes outside my window. And the sun glows red in a smoke clouded sky.
We are in the height of summer here on the leeward side of the Rocky Mountains. The forests are lush and green. The yet to turn golden green fronds of prairie grasses dance in the wind as if pulled by a puppeteer’s unseen hands.
And I want to yell at the leaves that continue to fade from green to golden, “Go back. Go back. You’re not welcome here… Yet.”
And I know my exhortations to retreat will be unheeded.
It is nature’s way.
To change. To flow. To be impervious to my demands as it struggles to meet the demands of a world where the very beings that make life on earth possible, the trees and rivers and oceans and air, are being continuously bombarded with our insensitive human ways.
Perhaps that is why the most recent spate of wildfires and floods and other natural disasters have felt so daunting. So incomprehensible. So sad.
Nature is responding in the only way it knows how to our continued demands it accept our garbage, our toxic waste, our extravagant assertions it act like a sponge to all we thoughtlessly deposit into the air and rivers and oceans and fields and forests and valley bottoms. It has reached the zenith of all it can contain. It is breaking open, breaking down and we, the humans of this world, are responsible.
This is not a battle of wills, of ‘little man’ with just a slingshot looking to topple the behemoth of nature. Nature is our partner. We are one with it, part of all of it as it is part of all of us. And we are in a fight for our lives. Should we remain impervious to nature’s need for us to change our ways, no one, not nature, not humans, not sentient nor non-sentient beings who are all our co-inhabitants of this planet which gives us life will survive.
I spied a patch of golden leaves this morning. I want to tell them to turn back to green but cannot stop nature’s way.
I can stop getting in the way of nature’s calls for help. I can stop demanding nature keep giving me life and start honouring the life it gives me and the symbiotic nature of our relationship. And to do that, I must do more with less, create better with everything, and give to the earth and all its beings both the less and the best of me.
I can stop hoping someone else ‘fix it’ and start fixing what I have contributed to breaking.
Autumn leaves turning golden in July beneath a smoke laden sky reminded me this morning of my continued need to lessen my footprint, pay attention to each step I take upon this planet.
Autumn leaves are turning. And though it feels too soon, it is not too soon for us to change our ways. We’re already late.
Dare Boldly 
Dear Louise,
This is so true. We have the ability to each day consider what we use and how we use it. Perhaps we make different choices and perhaps we don’t have to have it all so our embattled planet can rest easier.
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And if we each contribute less by doing more of what heals this planet, I believe we can make a difference. We must.
Hugs to you dear Lilli Ann. ❤
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Louise, this is a wonderfully written post on the connection between us and nature.
Yes, we need urgently to mend our ways and in many countries it is happening with speed.
Nature has tended to breaking point to keep us well but actions from all need to be there.
To care, to love and find the harmony with Mother Nature again.♥️
Miriam
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WP and I are having a challenging relationship this morning Miriam!
Thank you my friend — and yes — we must care, love and find the harmony. Mother Nature needs us.
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There are always those little bits here and there that are in a rush to turn. Thank goodness the rest ignore them until it is right and proper to change 😉
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Yes! Thank goodness for the big green still hanging on! 🙂 ❤
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Seriously. I love Autumn, but whoa Nelly…
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Hard to believe you can find prairie that is still green and lush. It’s crunchy crunchy brown here and the leaves starting turning when the temp hit 35.
As an individual I am trying my best but our country still produces coal and ships it worldwide. China uses an insane amount of coal power. Sometimes, actually most of the time, it seems bigger than me using the drying rack and not the dryer. I wrote a post about this subject just a few weeks ago. It feels so hard to enact the kind of big changes that need to occur.
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I understand there is quite a drought in your area Bernie. I’m so sorry!
Like you, I’m doing my daily best — and am stunned that we as a country are not doing our utmost to stop harming this planet that is our home.
It is bigger than us — yet, each of us can enact little changes that hopefully, together, will add up to big changes — and we can each lobby our political representatives to make change happen in real and big ways. Hopefully….
I love the image of your drying rack by the way — there is something symbolic, poignant and powerful about it. Thank you for that. ❤
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I have used a drying rack almost exclusively since our spring of 2019 return from Scotland and England. It’s all they use there and it’s easier on your clothing. It’s like the paper bags for groceries – everything old is new again. So I’ve embraced all the little changes I can. My letter writing during the pandemic did nothing for policy so I am not sure how to enact big political change.
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I noticed the golden on the leaves this morning and was in thinking about the same, as if not ready to let July go. You gave words to everything and much more so clearly. I agree with and loved your concluding lines. It is already late and yet what is it that I can do each day.
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Thank you Pragalbha. I hope that each of us chooses to do something, many things, every day. If we do, our ‘small daily significances’ will add up to a big difference. ❤
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You are very welcome, yes agree with you 💛
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So well said
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Thank you Joanne. ❤
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This is beautiful, Louise. Welcome home.
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Thank you Megan. It was wonderful to be away. Lovely to be home. ❤
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