I’m walking through the autumn leaves, and I realize how much I absolutely love the smell of dead leaves. That warm smell brings such longing with it; I think of fall school days as a child and jumping into leaf piles. That unmistakable leafy smell just makes me happy.
Then I realize I’m actually delighting in decomposition (rot, if you will). I’m loving the smell of a disintegrating, dead thing.
Yes, yes I am. There’s a particular beauty to what dies in this season. I celebrate it by jumping about, crunching into it, smelling it deeply.
I wish I could approach my own life that way. When things naturally and rightfully have to fade away because a new season is coming, I want to embrace it as eagerly as a child jumping into a leaf pile. New things always come about from old things falling away. I love the disintegrating leaves of Autumn. I pray I can welcome whatever disintegrating work God wants to do in my own life. Let the leaves fall and nourish whatever comes next.
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Don’t you love those bright blue skies in the fall? It’s smells just like a leaf pile everywhere I go.