i took this one!

I remain obsessed with my understanding of something I recently read explaining the annual display of leaf-changing color so familiar to New Englanders. Essentially, it is this: that leaves do not change color so much as reveal the inherent color masked the rest of the season by the daily process of photosynthesis. The production of chlorophyll hides those colors all season until cold and weaker sunlight slow the process down. At which point what has lain beneath all along is gradually revealed!

True or not, it has inspired me numerous times this fall. In the spirit of this understanding, I offer the following Sunday mediation and accompanying photograph:

I am in
my twilight season
my green leaves
fading with autumn’s
cold baring inner
intrinsic color. Maturity
and girlishness entwined
at long last
settling without judgment.
I am whole
in this season
of fully inhabiting
my own being.

swb