And she gave it her best shot, God luv 'er.
This was our front lawn the weekend before last, already half-raked. Take a look at that photo and then read again: Already half-raked!! That's a lotta leaves right there.
Looking at it today, it's hard to believe the final leaf dump has been, gone and disappeared. When I stand under the tree and look up into its branches, I find it so hard to believe that so many leaves come and go each year. It's so, so, incredibly beautiful.
It's one of those "no matter what, nature happens" things. Like when you're steeped in the grief of realising that day after day after merciless day is going to keep coming, regardless of whether your child has now passed, and you just have to look at things like waves on the shore - or a magnificent beast like this tree - and say to yourself, "What's the point in your popping off the mortal coil too? This tree will still be losing and gaining leaves, regardless."
And that is when you roll your sleeves up and begin to slowly look to the beauty of these natural wonders - they are EVERYWHERE, all around us, year round - to help you recuperate. Healing and nurture and effervescence is to be found here. Not in other people, for they are not constant.
No. It is here. In Mother Nature. Where you are spun into your wholeness once again.
Goodbye, sweet Autumn! Until next year.
