The Blustery Day

I don't mind the leaves that are leaving.

It's the ones that are coming.

                                                                --Piglet in "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day"

Although yesterday was Monday,

it  was a lot more like Winnie the Pooh's "Winds-day."

The wind gusted, blustered, and breezed 

from the early morning through the early twilight.

And with each gust, the chill was a little chillier,

the flecks of rain a little rainier.

Leaves have been falling for some time now;

they come down on top of everything 

and so far have arranged  themselves in small drifts and piles.

But yesterday's wind shook loose all but the most tenacious.

Soon, there won't be any left on the branches at all--

they'll all be on the ground.

And how long will we wait until they come again, tender and green?

Photo courtesy of morguefile.com

When I was out crunching through some fallen leaves yesterday,

I wondered why leaves fall from the trees every autumn.

There must be some natural purpose, I reasoned.

And there is. 

According to the web site Softpedia.org,

losing leaves is a way for trees to preserve water.

Dropping their leaves affords them protection against the drier winter air.

So that's interesting. 

I've also read that the fabulous fall colors in most trees 

are already there throughout the year,

just obscured by the green chlorophyll. 

That's mysterious.

Photo courtesy of morguefile.com

And trees sheds their leaves so they can rest 

and sustain themselves through the winter.

That's kind of magical.

Wind blusters. Leaves fall.

Nature unfolds.

As Benjamin Hoff says in "The Tao of Pooh":

Things are as they are.

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