The first appearance of change is often unexpected, and in many cases unpredictable. As changes start appearing, they can make our lives seem like an unorganized mess. But as we grow into the changes, they can evolve into a beautiful picture of something different—yet unique in its own right—than what was present before.
This is not that much different than the first change in leaves transitioning towards Autumn colors. At first glance they can seem unappealing, like blotchy segments of colors showing up where they don’t seem to belong (see below photograph!). Yellow, orange, and red spots making their appearance amongst bright green leaves.
These changes initially appear to be ruining the continuity of the previously green colored leaves. But as each entire leaf changes into its beautiful Autumn hues, the collective end result of all the tiny individual changes on each leaf come together to create a beautiful change. We see a breathtaking transformation of colors in our landscapes.
Perhaps you are going through a season of change that involves a move, a relationship or career change. Whatever it is, I know it can be scary, especially if things have been the same way for a long time. Sometimes change is bigger than ourselves, which is something I think we have a hard time grasping is today’s society.
We are trained to think about ourselves first, and how various changes and circumstances will effect us and our desires. We don’t think about others first, and how perhaps a different outcome for our lives than the one we initially intended is actually better.
We have become obsessed with micro-analyzing everything in our lives from how happy we are, to little disappointments in our daily lives. When we become too hyperfocused, we are figuratively looking too closely at the blotches on changing Autumn leaves.
All we can see is how these new colors don’t fit in with the old ones. They seem out of place, and that they are disturbing the beautiful green leaf as a whole. But if we are patient, give things time, and take in the big picture—we can see how beautiful the change can be when we are patient and are open to take in a new perspective for our lives.
