Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Sunday, October 20, 2024

Leaving the Leaves

My Mayday tree, the autumn wind having stripped away most of its leaves, now stands stiff and without grace. The ground below the tree is purpled with fallen leaves. Another man might rake up the fallen leaves and bag them, but I like to watch as the wind breathes life back into them, urging them to skitter and swirl across my drive. I am reminded of what my friend Bill told me about snow in the winter when he was a young boy. He noticed that their house was the only one on the block without snow cleared from the sidewalks.

“Dad,” he asked his father, “how come we don’t shovel our sidewalks like everyone else?”

His father readily answered, “The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away.”

—Mitchell Hegman

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