Foux-liage

That feeling of needing change...craving novelty..and churning hopes and dreams for the future.  A feeling of displacement.  Like something doesn't fit right now, but something good is on the horizon.  Sometimes it is just downright difficult to live in the moment.  While this blog was created as a means of documenting my Italy trip, I think it's meant to be continued.  Perhaps the dissection of the little moments of life can happen in a more monotonous and routine way of life.  And hopefully you can share in my search to find complete fulfillment by living in the MOMENT.  Even when sometimes the moments we are experiencing are less than mediocre...or so they may seem.

People say it all the time..."think positive.  It's how you VIEW life. Do you view life as the glass half full or half empty"?  I am a big believer in the power of perspective, as many people are.  Yet, I also believe in calling a spade a spade.  Take fall foliage for example. Foux-liage. The leaves are dying... (glass half empty), but they are undergoing a beautiful change that their spectators are able to enjoy before the dreary winter months.  The analogy of Fall as a season of change is not a novel idea.  But as I was driving through the beautiful mountains of Pennsylvania a few weeks ago and looking at the gorgeous fall colors,  I couldn't help but thinking that if these trees could have thoughts they would be less than pleasant I'm sure.  What would they be thinking as they feel their leaves shriveling up..knowing their beautiful ornaments are destined to lose their home on a branch and fall to the ground.  Only to leave this tree bare and ugly.  This might seem pessimistic and it also might seem slightly crazy that I would even be personifying trees and leaves.  But the only reason why we are able to "ooo and ahh" and these beautiful fall leaves is because we know the bigger picture.  We know that leaves changing colors and dying is part of the cyclical life cycle of a plant.  We know that new leaves will grow on the tree again in the Spring.

The feeling of change is quite uncomfortable.  I think it's because we aren't able to see the larger picture.  We have no idea what our future will hold.  We don't even know what will happen a minute from now let alone years from now.  We feel ourselves growing and changing, our leaves changing colors, and we don't know what's coming.  Yet, I think we need to embrace the change because let's face it- trying to defy nature has a bleak success rate.  A tree may feel sad during this period of change, and let's be real it would probably freak out if it didn't know Spring was to come.  People are taking pictures of its beautiful leaves, admiring the beauty of the colors, enjoying the crunching sound of them on the ground, or jumping in piles of them.  Yet this tree's leaves are dying and will forever decompose into eternity! Foux-liage at its finest.

The fall season is a good reminder to handle change with the perspective of a human enjoying the change of seasons, rather than a tree experiencing its leaves dying.  What you are going through during a period of change is part of the season of life.  More good is on the way.   Live in the moment...love each exciting, confusing, shattering change that happens in your life.Let what needs to go fall to the ground and make way for beautiful new sprouts to come down the road.