The Changing Leaves are always a miraculous sight for those of us in climates that provide this annual display of colorful foliage.  The predictable transformation has become synonymous with change and a reminder that there is always new life, new growth just beyond what appears to be death.  What is truly remarkable about the process is what causes the change in colors.  As the hours of daylight become less, the tree responds to an inner signal.  The signal is not to drop its leaves although that is what occurs.  The signal is to begin new growth.  The tree begins to direct its resources to new growth, to the buds that will occur in the spring.  This focus on the new growth in turn diminishes the flow of nutrients to the current leaves and they respond by fading, falling and preparing the space for the new buds.  As always, when I look at the falling leaves I know that new life will occur in the spring but today I recognize that the forming of new buds has already begun.  In life, as I see something fading away, I know on an inner level that something new is forming within me. What falls away prepares the space for what is being called forth in me.  This is the miracle of transformation that occurs in the trees, in my life and in the world. 

© 2016. Reverend Eileen DeRosia Patra

Rev. Eileen is an ordained Unity minister currently serving at Unity of Livonia in Livonia, Michigan.