Fall for fall before it all falls

Those autumn leaves are screaming for you to let go

The Talmud says, “Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, ‘Grow! Grow!’"

I think every leaf has an Angel that bends over it and shouts, “Let go! Let go!”
Autumn is our annual reminder to let go. To loosen our grip on life and trust the way it changes.

It's amazing what those leaves can teach when you pause to listen to them. They inspired poet Robert Frost to paint a picture in words of two roads that diverged in a yellow wood. Ever since, we’ve been pondering the difference the one less traveled might make.

In "What Can I Say?" poet Mary Oliver urges us to take our busy heart to the forest for a familiar sound: “The song you heard singing in the leaf when you were a child is singing still."

Read “The Fall of Freddie the Leaf” by Leo Buscaglia and you understand why one of the author’s most popular quotes is, “Every moment spent in unhappiness is a moment of happiness lost.”

Freddie the leaf doesn’t want to drop. He asks his leaf friend Daniel, "Why were we here at all if we only have to fall and die?"

Daniel, who possesses the wisdom of a rabbi, answers, "It's been about the sun and the moon. It's been about happy times together. It's been about the shade and the old people and the children. It's been about colors in Fall. It's been about seasons. Isn't that enough?"

It’s enough if you take time to enjoy the seasons of life.

How can we squander a smidge of fall complaining about summer’s end when there’s so much to savor about fall? Instead, why not…

Enjoy the chill in the night air that makes it feel so crisp. The stars seem brighter, the sky wider, the moon wiser.

Take a hike. Wander on untamed trails. Remember to “take only pictures and leave only footprints.”

Listen to the trees sigh. The leaves are whispering goodbye before they skitter across the ground. Chase them as they run in circles like kids at recess.

Go leaf crunching. A simple walk around the block turns delicious when you step on every crooked, twisted, gnarly dead leaf to hear it crunch.

Wander around a cemetery. Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland is my favorite. You can see downtown Cleveland and Lake Erie from the Garfield monument, visit the Wade Memorial Chapel to see the Tiffany glass and say hello to Eliot Ness.

Hit the road. Go for a country drive. Listen to the wind turn cornfields into wind chimes. Stop at a roadside stand for the last tomatoes of summer and the first apples of fall.

Visit a pumpkin patch. Run through a corn maze. Take a hayride.

Make a pot of soup, stew or chili. Get cozy around the fireplace.

Collect leaves. Jump in a pile. Fill old clothes and make a scarecrow. Follow a gaggle of geese until they launch, then enjoy the honking and laughter above.

Carve pumpkins. Bake a pie. Try a new apple crisp recipe with old friends. Press leaves between sheets of wax paper. Hang them in the window like stained glass.

Pick some apples. Sip some cider. Crack open a bag of candy corn. Make a caramel apple disappear.

Savor every sunset, storm and shadow before the sun sets on fall for good.

Autumn is so precious yet so brief; it's easy to miss the magic if you dwell on winter approaching.

Those leaves we complain about aren’t just for raking. They have a message for us all: Let go.

Stop clinging to what you have. Stop clinging to what you know. Stop clinging to life as it is.

Relax, release and enjoy the ride.