When The Leaves Fall…
When do the leaves shed?…. being a pre-medical student I have my answer, and as well having knowledge of phenology, have my answer as well, the autumn, the fall…. when trees turn brown and leaves cover the roads, when the concrete side tracks turn to hazy yellow, a beautiful season. Every category defines the leaf abscission in different terms. Botany says when leaves dry up and lose certain minerals, they cannot keep their hold with tress and they fall. Phenology says that, it’s an annual cycle by which old leaves fall and make way for the new ones, and that’s how a life cycle of a tree goes on.
This gives one an idea, that with time, when leaves can’t hold on, they let go, and give place to new leaves. Likewise, when we cannot hold on to our sentiments, we try to let them go, so we can grow and be a better version of ourselves. Relatable, right? And when we are finally brave enough to confront the reality that we are about to lose, that we are at the verge of the cliff, we realize that,
‘sometimes it’s better to let go then to hold on,’ (anonymous)
letting go here is not jumping into the cliff, but it’s letting go of what’s holding you back from turning away from the cliff.
Metaphorically our sentiments are like leaves, our dreams, ambitions, our goals are like the beautiful tree trunk, and last but not least, faith in us, is like the roots of a beautiful autumn tree. We all are familiar with the functions of the follows and lets not go to anatomy. But in short, stronger the roots are, they’ll keep the tree holding deep into the ground, they’ll always support the tree and as long as these strong roots remain, we can expect a tree to keep standing. Now comes the trunk. Some tree trunks are hollow, mostly aren’t, and there is a difference between both of them, latter are stronger. And of course, the leaves -green, yellow, orange, brown… all these beautiful colors, and we also have different verity and cherry blossoms with their beautiful pink color- with time, they all change from one color to another, they change, they vary, but all of their shades are beautiful, and no matter what the color they hold, they are the most important part of the tree. A tree is as lively as its leaves.
Let’s talk about the roots first. Stronger the roots are, more firmly the tree is held in the soil, that’s a fact. As mentioned above, let us take our faith in us as roots, and if we keep a tree in mind, then we realize how important faith is in one’s self in life is. Stronger the faith, more resolute one is. But why having strong faith in us is important? Why can we not just do something and let circumstances handle the results? No, we cannot because that’s not how the universe works. Ever heard of ‘Law Of Attraction’? That what comes in between your success and your circumstantial failure. You attract what you think, that’s why when you have strong faith in what you are doing, and also in your success, the universe gives it to you. But is having strong faith enough? Will we be given the desired results by merely having faith in us and doing nothing? Do we have to do consistent efforts as well?
This is where the trunk comes in; roots themselves alone are not enough to nourish the entire tree, but they need consistent efforts of all the cells present in the trunk to carry nutrients all the way from roots to leaves. Same way, our success does not just depend upon having a strong faith in us, but it also depends upon our consistent efforts to achieve what we believe in. Without these two things, there is no way this universe will come to an action and give us what we dream of. We all have to put in effort and be steadfast to be at a place where we see ourselves. As a normal practice, we usually cut a tree trunk to a point just a few inches above the ground, but does it then refuse to grow back? No, because its roots are strong. Same way, mostly, we are shattered to where we started something; we feel like we have lost, and there is no restarting again. We feel like we are delving into the darkness, losing all our hope, all our faith just because we failed.. But is it a wise act to think so? Not because
‘it’s always the darkest before the dawn’ (anonymous)
you know this is where your faith plays its part, just like strong roots help a tree grow back, your strong faith in yourself helps you to stand up in the dark and when with a strong faith you rise again you have then already learnt your lesson that no matter how hard things might get, you will always succeed when you strongly believe in yourself.
But what about all these emotions which force us to dive deep in oceans of agony and grief? What about these troublesome thoughts which don’t let us sleep? If we are bound to succeed with consistent effort and firm belief in ourselves, then why do these emotions even bother us? Why do we feel like standing at the verge of a cliff, hoping to fall and end this game called life? These emotions, sentiments exist so we may know our strengths, our capabilities, our powers. Wired, I know, but just imagine if you lose a match and you feel no sadness, no regret… then what will you feel? Definitely not the hope of winning next time or think of improving your match skills but you will feel nothing and feeling nothing is called being dead.. Same way, if we don’t feel these emotions, we feel dead and most of us have felt that. These emotions are as important to us as leaves are to tree, no doubt naked trees look beautiful as well but, it feels like something is missing, and same case with here, a human body can be without emotions, but a soul carries its beautiful sentiments. Happiness, joy, pleasure, sorrow, all are like different shades of leaves, with time they change, with experience as well. And then when we get burdened by them, we finally muster up courage to let them go one by one, all the emotions which hold us back from moving on to the next phase of life, we let them go down the cliff, one after the other, till the last one gone. And then we start again, just like a beautiful autumn tree, waiting for the spring to bloom again.
