Life as a leaf

Nev loves chasing leaves, catching, and tearing them apart as we go for a walk; this is his best season, he loves leaves. I was thinking about the life journey of a leaf as I look at an overly excited King Charles Cavalier run around in a sea of leaves like a kid in a ball pit, then coming out shattered and panting; and that is just the kids.

When you see the buds just coming out on the branches they look so fragile but with so much potential just as we see a little baby born with everything waiting for it and a whole life ahead. As the bud grows you see it grow into a little leaf perfectly formed and making the tree seem that it has just put its clothes on after the winter months cold and barren, looking unloved and isolated.

As the leaf grows bigger in late spring and early summer it is like watching children grow in size and character in equal measure, and the personality comes out. The leaf’s colour is vibrant, strong, and full of life. So as the leaf goes into full summer it blooms and in its prime just like as the child grows to be an adult and lives life to the full, fitting in family, career, and social life in equal and disproportionate measure.

As you hit your teens and early 20’s you become a social butterfly with your leaves fluttering in the breeze and making everyone know you are there. Your life is a headlong run like, a bull charging at a wall, sometime the wall falls done and sometimes the bull is left dazed and confused just like we are in life. We then decide to dust ourselves off and charge at the wall again.

As you get older your leaves lose their vibrate colours and start to fade. As early Autumn comes the leaves are turning brown and don’t look as strong as they once did, every day looking like they can’t stand up to the harsh winds and driving rain. As we get to middle age we also feel like time is slipping by too quickly, the months and years fly by, unlike your youth when days were long, and you had little or no worries in life.

That fateful day when the first leaf falls from the tree sends little Nev into a frenzy knowing that over the next month or two leaf playtimes is on!

The sheer joy in his face and excitement in his whole being, he literally has to be taken home panting and needing water, a nap, and some food after he has wind sprinted (pun intended) all over the place. Like the dog version of Rocky training. One day while I was kicking leaves in the air for Nev it dawned on me that this leave has went full circle, but then again it had not quite finished.

As we come to the end of this mortal coil we don’t just die, we leave a legacy for our loved ones both family and friends that will last many years. As the leaves rot and go back into the ground they nourish the tree that they came from and next year a little bud will pop out in early spring and the life cycle of a leaf will start all over again; with a small help from last year’s leaves.

We are born, we flourish, we wilt and eventually fall but the memory remains and grows strong like the family tree. Each generation makes the tree grow stronger and every little leaf counts!

Never forget that

Big love from the AFC

Posted in memory of my dad Robert Atkin x