When it rained dry leaves....

Leaves lose their green...dry leaves fall...new leaves spring up...and new thoughts flood me...

The tea-kettle had kept me busy in the kitchen. I walked down to the balcony with my steaming cup of tea to give a few hints for some tough math problems to my daughter who was poring over her work-book on her study table. A sudden rustling sound prompted me to look outside. It was raining leaves – dry leaves. And all very abruptly the moment of realization came. 

Here I was, a neighbour of three trees that have given me company during my lonely hours in the day when the kids are away since the time I quit my corporate job. Always enjoying the cooling effect and the beauty of the green foliage they have been adorned with, I had taken them for granted for years. Today, they stood magnificently, glowing with an entirely different kind of beauty. A significant part of each of them had almost lost its green attire as a mix of brown, yellow and orange draped it. The other part of each was close to bare, with only a few brown leaves hanging delicately, ready to be blown away by the next gust of wind. A few completely bare branches waved as a light breeze again shook a bunch of dry leaves off another few.

As the trees kept changing their look with every gust of wind, I stood still, marvelling at the beauty of the rain of dry leaves and the multi-coloured look of the trees, all the while wondering how I could have been blind to this all. My eyes wandered from one branch to another when they stopped at one that went high up and far away from its trunk. Tiny, new reddish leaves sat at its tip, soaking in the golden sunshine. When had those new lives sprung up?

When you admire sunshine, would the sky be left behind? The oh-so-blue spring sky peered down at me with all its grandeur as a few white clouds sailed by. Another shower of fluttering dry leaves brought me out of my reverie. A tiny dry leaf was slowly dancing its way down to the carpet of dry leaves rich with many hues. The last few green leaves shook merrily when I suddenly felt a tug at my heart. I am one of those green leaves basking in the sunshine of love of my family and a few friends, all the while enjoying the wind of changes and transformations in and around me. A time will arrive when old age will shake me off the ‘tree’ of life. Shall I dance or limp my way to a world not known to any yet? The trees have been my companions for long. Their leaves have gifted me with joy and happiness for long. Before I bid farewell to this beautiful world, will I have given happiness generously to my loved ones just like those leaves have?