Dancing Leaf (Lisa)

I’ve been praying on unknowns, concerns of how the future will be. I‘ve been praying on the waiting, on the weight of the wait. That is much of life, a string of intermissions before outcomes, a diagnosis, a surgery, a series of personal climaxes and resolutions. I’ve been praying and walking and being in nature, a place where I find the vivid presence of God.

It was the falling leaves that spoke to me on this day. It was autumn as I hiked along the Alapocas Trail, a time when we think of endings, the end of Summer, the shiny hot sweaty flashy season of lively living. Autumn heralds the end of green as the leaves lose their suppleness, in their dying, they burst out in riotous colors! Dropping finally to the ground, under the crunch of my feet, they begin to decompose, nourishing life and new beginnings. My faith has taught me to see the rebirth that is to come from the dying of self. A beautiful lesson that I carry with me always but on this day, I heard something more.

As I watched a single leaf flutter, dancing its way to a soft landing before me, I thought of all the waiting this singular leaf had done, all that spring and summer long, emerging and blossoming but being stuck in one place, ONE PLACE, wondering, worrying, waiting for the dance to come, the one and only dance it would ever take in its entire life. It is a short but beautiful dance. Each leaf, each life, does its own twists and turns, engaging with the breeze, the easy updrafts and difficult encounters with other leaves and branches along the way.

I thought about my life and the weight of all the waits, stuck in ONE PLACE called WORRY. And I thought about the dance that comes with surrender, when you let go, when you finally and completely give your anxious thoughts about the unknowns, the what’s to comes to God, and freefall in faith.

I don’t want to wait, with the weight of the wait, until the color of my life drains from my veins. I want to live in riotous color now! I want to give it to God now, all my worries, all my cares and repeat that each day, living out my life in the vivid colors of JOY, softly falling in a trusting dance, landing ever-so gently, grounded in Him.

Lord, help me be a dancing leaf.

Amen