Leaf by Leaf ...The Wisdom of Healing

We were travelling down the freeway Saturday morning, on the way to our favorite Italian bakery to buy bread and lunchmeats.  It had rained all night and most of the morning and the clouds were still dark and heavy.  As we drove, I noticed that the trees (one of my favorite topics!) were already losing their brilliant green color.  They were pale and starting to yellow.  Yet, some trees have already burst into orange and red, and the leaves slowly were falling.  My red maple tree has lost its deep burgundy color and now it looks dirty brown-green.  Its leaves have started to fall also.

It's kind of how we lose those things that create resentments within ourselves.  You never know when resentments or hurts will leave you.  It happens gradually. One day you wake up and suddenly the world looks different, feels different, and that heaviness you carried around for so long is gone.

One by one, we watch as these precious trees shed their leaves, as they twirl and float quietly toward the ground.  The wisdom of this event hit me.  Those trees will not lose their leaves in one day.  And I, will not lose all my hurts or resentments in one day either.  It is a process that gradually will come to completion.

In this hurried culture in which we live, we want everything to happen quickly.  But healing takes time and patience.  I found out that breaches and breaks in relationships are the hardest wounds to heal.  They go so deep and seem  to take much longer to mend than other hurts.  The extent of the damage that the wound has caused can take months or even years to heal.  It seems a forever process, the hurt seems to drop in despairing slowness.

A vision of hope?  Well, it is there for all of us. Keep your heart and soul open to receive.  Until then, visualize as each leaf falls, that they are labeled with a wounded feeling that needs to heal.  Feel it, own it, and watch it go. 
A quiet day finally comes when that old tree with no leaves is ready for the new.  And in my waiting heart, the branches with no leaves have just a hint of green.