Stay Close to Your Tree

[Abbara]

Winter came to Southern Oregon. We noticed the wind battering the few leaves that were clinging to the lilac bush by the house. Eventually, one lone leaf remained and we began to check every day to see if the winds and rains had defeated him. We recalled O'Henry's story, The Last Leaf, and began to relate on an emotional basis to our leaf. "Stay close to your tree," I urged him."

I checked it out up close, finding that it was attached right where the new growth would begin in spring. "When spring arrives and greening starts, that will be the end of you," I thought. But spring and the greening arrived and that lone brown leaf from last year remained.

God sends lessons through nature, so what can I learn from this persistent little guy? My words came back to mind, "Stay close to your tree." I wrote down his poem and share it here, in gratitude for my little friend, Leaf, Me Alone.

Stay Close to Your Tree
A Lesson in Sacred Living
Dictated to me by Leaf, Me Alone

Just one of thousands leaflets,
that the lilac has on board.
Intoxicating vision, scent,
the glory of the Lord.

Life; life in fabulous array
the creatures who stop by.
We dominate the springtime
and we hear the people sigh.

How wonderful the colors!
Oh, how sweet the blossoms waft!
But leaves provide a cooling shade
Till breeze brings winter’s draft.

Soon scent and blossoms fade away
No teeming life is found
Our color deepens ere we fall
to lie upon the ground.

Through autumn rain and winter snow
Our numbers growing thin
Until remains, but one lone leaf
Upon a barren limb.

A gift indeed, to those who sighed
and watched our springtime show
But I, alone, am witness to
Their joy that I won’t go.

A service I have given them,
a lesson they can take,
That flash and flair are wondrous
But do not a warrior make.

For it’s about connection here
fast clinging to my tree
When all about seems lost and bleak
That lends such strength to me.

Soon I will join my brothers there
Where I still serve the tree
Perhaps to make a blossom next
When springtime calls for me.

© by Abbara 2/11/14