It's been an unusually mild November (until now), with the result that earlier this week I was actually mowing the lawn, but before doing so I had to sweep up the autumn leaves. It's important to do so to let such sunlight as we still have get through to the grass to enable it to grow for next year.
We don't really think about the amount of leaves on a tree, but clearly their vast surface area is needed to enable to the tree to breathe, to live and to grow through photosynthesis.
It is only when confronted with a knee - high pile of leaves after 10 minutes' raking that you realise just how much material is there.
At about the same time I was reflecting with a client on the birth of a baby on the anniversary of a grandparent's death. It's a truism, but death and life really are inseparable. In the womb, the baby starts life with webbed hands, looking more like paddles. The individual fingers are only formed as the cells between them die at the end of their short lives.
The trees need their leaves for a season, and then when the time is right, by instinct and without thought, they just let them go in order to prepare for next year's growth.
Do you need to let go of anything ?