Chlorophyll...

September 20th:  The hummingbirds have all flown away...it's a marker...a harbinger of things to come...another sign of the passing of time.

And the journey of life has many signs if one is looking for them, and I do.

October 11th:  Now, it's the turning of the leaves... 

It's peak Autumn at Windy Hill.  A visual treat, one that typically starts slow and then builds with speed and impact...

It typically starts with blush on a leaf, then a branch, a subtle color shift, a faint patch-work promise, an early hint for what's to come...

Then the leaves on a whole limb turn yellow, orange or red, looking like a bright firework shooting out of a dark green canopy. 

Keep watching and the leaves at the top of the tree start to catch up, morphing into those warm Autumn colors as the days grow shorter and the nights cool off.

Except at Windy Hill.  We have "Martin's Tree"!

Martin is one of our neighbors in the valley below, with a 60' Maple growing in his front yard, which is not terribly unique or hard to find in Northern PA.

But Martin's Maple is magic...it's as-if Tinker Bell swept in, waved her wand and all her glittering fairy dust gently settles on this one-of-a-kind tree.

While all the trees in sight from the top of Windy Hill are still wearing Summer green, this one turns BRILLIANT RED overnight!

All Summer long it's green, and then BAM!  Faster than you can microwave a cup of coffee, it transforms into a stunning, put-your-eyes-out beacon of color.

And we are lucky enough to see it perfectly while sitting in our easy chairs looking out at our view on Windy Hill! 

That tree does it all at once!  It resonates with some of my core life mottos...make it happen...do it now...let's get on with it...I like it!

And I've read the scientific details...

The leaves stop their food making process, then chlorophyll in the leaves, which give trees their green Summer color starts to break down, revealing the underlying bright yellows, reds and oranges of Autumn, until the tree finally shuts off "leaf support" and the leaves begin to fall.

Pretty amazing stuff right there!

And some people believe it all started with a big bang...

I can't figure these people out.

In my simple mind, it requires a significant leap of faith to get from "...It all started with a Big Bang..." -> to seeing trees with the biological capability and internalized processes to shed their leaves before the winter winds and heavy snows can rip their limbs off!

It takes way less faith to believe Somebody really smart created it all, with a perfect plan for how it would all work together...but that's just me.

But, more frequently, my mind focuses on those brilliant reds, yellows and oranges...the colors hidden by the green chlorophyll.

It's amazing that the colors are always there!

We just don't get to see them till the source of the green is removed.

I like that...knowing the colors are always there, just covered up...

And maybe that's the way life is...

When life grows bland and colorless, or perhaps turns dark...gray...or black...

...then maybe we need to be like the trees of Autumn, and identify the source of the darkness.

For me it is the News...media...the "experts", (who actually aren't)...the fear mongers...the triggered worry...the what-ifs which never happen... 

When I remove the noise, life becomes colorful again.

Like trees cutting back on chlorophyll, it is then that I see the true colors and mystries of life...

And just like Autumn leaves, the beautiful colors of life are always there...

...but sometimes we just allow them to get covered up...

Let the adventure continue...