A Second Opinion: Fantastic Fall Foliage

FANTASTIC FALL FOLIAGE: “Why don’t they let the leaves stay on the ground, so they can dance and skip
and play around? They’ve done their work; they’ve had their day, so why not let them stay and play?”

By Mary Foran

Autumn is known for trees shedding their leaves in quantities of gold, red and orange.

Some people dread the annual Fall of leaves which cover their lawns, and fill their gutters, and clog the storm drains on the street corners.

But others get out their rakes that have been stashed away for a year with glee, and start the process of sweeping the leaves into golden piles into which children love to jump and hide.

Cities often plant trees just for their colorful Fall foliage, and they annually have to spend a wad on leaf pick-up services. Leaf-blowers and landscapers get extra work during this season to clean up what Mother Nature has let go.

As California scrub and forests burn and housing is overwhelmed and threatened, other parts of the country blaze in glorious colors that draw tourists and photographers from around the world.

Although I find raking leaves a delightful chore in the nippy Autumn weather, I can see the other side of the issue as the poet said:

“Why don’t they let the leaves stay on the ground, so they can dance and skip and play around?

They’ve done their work; they’ve had their day, so why not let them stay and play?”

And as the song says:

“To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn, and a time to every purpose, under heaven.”

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Images
Featured image/Randem Pederson, CC BY2.0
Children playing on fallen leaves/Aka Hige, CC BY-SA2.o
Autumn leaves on grass/Nature Therapy, CC BY2.0