How the Leaves Let Go

“It is in Autumn that the trees show us there is beauty in letting go.”

I am sure that you’ve read or heard some version of this quote at some point. It is very possible that it was even within one of the very letters I send to you.

There is beautiful wisdom and medicine in letting go and the deciduous trees all around us show us this year after year, right after they put on the most beautiful show of color.

But something that has been on my mind over the last few weeks (again) is the phenomenon deciduous trees also experience: marcescence. Marcescence is what it is called when a tree holds onto its dead leaves into the winter rather than letting them go.

I invite you to ponder this phenomenon for yourself - what medicine and/or wisdom might it hold for you?

Letting go is a beautiful (although not always an easy) act and is a crucial piece to the cycle and rhythm that is life.

…and still, letting go may take an extra season or two.

No matter if letting go is happening for us now or it happens in the metaphorical springtime or anytime between, may we trust it is all in perfect time. And may we allow ourselves and others grace in the timeline of each of our leaves that will eventually fall.