Leaving

Trees lose their leaves or needles every year. Yes, even evergreens that look ever green but lose their "leaves" too, just as all trees do, naturally. We humans, as we age, lose as well, but more slowly and as some, less gracefully. I don't take the negative thought route, but appreciate all the small losses that we elders discover, as natural sheddings, just as trees shed their leaves. Trees will grow new leaves, but we humans, inspite of our hubris, don't reclaim our youth or "new leaves". Still, we can find grace in how we give up our "leaves". We can leave with humour, smiling or laughing, even, at what we believe are losses. The losses are natural and understandable and can, if we try, be accepted. Unfortunately, there are elders who refuse the opportunity of graceful aging and rant and rail and make attempts to try in vain, to look or behave or boast about not being able to do what they once did, or how once beautiful, they appeared.  And that's okay because, it's what some need to do. Not everyone regards getting on in years as a bad situation. It's a natural situation and is much easier if felt, as does a tree, in dropping it leaves. One by one in beautiful colours the tree leaves fall and display their event of aging and the former joys in perfect autumn golds, orange, red and yellow before they become the sustenance of the next generations' foliage. Our human hearing, sight, and all the senses we valued so that we could work well and quickly and efficiently without too much effort or pain, do gradually fade and their loss can be as easily acceptable, because our bodies are simply wearing down. Trees in spite of what some think, age and die, too. Think how many beats your heart has had to work at pumping fluids in your body: days and nights and months and years and decades without a thought or effort on your conscious self. Think of the nerves and muscles and tendons and joints and layers of skin that have served you year in and year out since you were a tiny infant. We should smile instead of frown, over wrinkles and sagging and layers of rich fat that once gave us energy to work, rear familes and attract loves. We had such happiness even over the bad stuff, didn't we? Now it's time to let go, but still try to look and be our best without bitterness,  like the trees that we see in all their glory this late autumn.