Leaves Cartwheeling Across the Lawn

Another Way for week of November 3, 2023

Leaves Cartwheeling Across the Lawn

Here in the Shenandoah Valley, we have enjoyed weeks of rhapsody in orange, red, yellow, and green. It has been amazing, gorgeous, eye-opening … all the cliches. I’m lost for descriptors of the trees, leaves and mountains.

The foliage has been the best it has been in years, at least in my memory. One friend who traveled to New England this fall (where the autumn colors are almost always spectacular, yes?) came back to our Valley and said our colors here were as good as New England’s this year.

Luxuriating in the colors has caused me to stop in town, get out of my car, walk a few blocks and fire away with my phone camera.

I want to learn more about how God paints, and why in this dry dry fall we could enjoy all this spectacular color. Botanist anyone? Tree expert? Climate professional?

It has been a gift. My husband and I are not tree professionals, but the four trees we have in our front yard have blessed my heart in these recent years. We built the house in 2007 and finally have shade in our front yard, enough that my husband is now “worried” that we put too many trees out there. I’m not concerned. They will likely outlast us here and we won’t really have to worry about whether there are too many. I do not like raking. For this fall, I am hoping that a few strong gusts will take leaves cartwheeling across the lawn to the hayfield.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service division, has done a spectacular job of explaining everything about leaves and trees and colors and why here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/visit/fall-colors/science-of-fall-colors. In a nutshell, perhaps you remember the word chlorophyl from science classes. Chlorophyl gives leaves their basic green color, which is necessary for photosynthesis, by which a plant uses sunshine to make sugars (food for the trees). And different types of trees tend to produce different colors after the chlorophyl drives up. In a forest, the colors of different trees produce a glorious canopy. Weather, length of days and nights—as days get shorter—all affect color.

I grew up in northern Indiana over 17 years. We loved fall and the colors. Then I lived in north Florida one year. Yes, there was some colorful change in that flat area, but nothing like we experience in Virginia. I was happy to spend a few pre-marriage years living in the hills of eastern Kentucky, the city of Barcelona, Spain, and back to Virginia. In my memory, nothing compares to the blankets of color we see here. (Remember, I’ve never seen New England in fall, or the western U.S. mountains in fall.)

What’s important here maybe is remembering to let this season just “fall” around us as a special time of beauty with crunchy walks through woods if we get the chance.

I loved what I found on a friend’s (and now neighbor) Facebook page and am borrowing it here, with her permission. Sharon Landis describes herself as: “author, spiritual director, and naturalist” and I had the privilege of working with her and her brother on a book, The Spacious Heart: Room for Spiritual Awakening. She wrote this on a Sunday, reflecting on the deep desire most of us have for shalom or peace in this beautiful world.

“Oh how my heart longs for [shalom] all over the world! I hold this prayerfully as I am quietly present to this precious autumn morning with its soft muted colors. After yesterday’s brilliance, this subtle beauty delights me. Fallen leaves cover our lawn, giving a sweet crunch to any movement. Hope for rain rises with the widening cloud cover. May each of us find a small rising of hope, beauty, and Divine comfort this day.”   

 To which I can only add, Amen.

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Are you still seeing great colors, whether muted or robust?

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Another Way is a column by Melodie Davis, in syndication since 1987. She is the author of ten books, most recently Memoir of an Unimagined Career. Another Way columns are posted at FindingHarmonyBlog.com a week after newspaper publication.