Sitting beneath a tree, tucked away from the world for a while, I glance up. I can’t help but notice that the leaves of the tree, although still mostly green, look lifeless and dull. Already some branches are bare and if I look closer I can see brown mingled with the green.

As the wind blows, a leaf lands on me and I catch it quickly. The edges are a red-brown and they feel dry and brittle. Autumn has well and truly arrived and I marvel at the beauty of the changing colours of the leaves. As the sunlight falls on the bright reds, oranges and yellows I think perhaps autumn might be my favourite season. It is certainly the one which is most likely to take my breath away.

As I look up at this tree, in the midst of autumn, I wonder if it fights the changing of the season. In summer its leaves are healthy, filled with moisture and are a dazzling green. Autumn brings with it beauty, yes, but what comes next is winter. Autumn is almost like a declaration that winter is coming. Does the tree mind that its branches will soon be completely bare? Does it rage against the inevitability of the changing seasons?

Ecclesiastes tells us that there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the sun. Change is inevitable and yet unlike the tree that gracefully embraces each new season, we tear against it. Perhaps the young sapling feels the anxiety too. It has never experienced the changing of the seasons and may think to itself, “Am I dying? Is this the end?” The young sapling need only look to the towering oak tree that has survived and thrived through 100s of changing seasons.

Can we be like that old oak tree who instead of worrying about the signs of change, simply surrender to the process? Can we come to a place of acceptance that there truly is a time for everything?

Next time I sit on this bench, under this tree, I may have no shade as its branches may be bare. I know however that this is not the end of the cycle, for the bare branches only herald that spring is coming.