Most of the time these divine qualities are masked, covered up, hidden by our ego self. I see the colors as being different divine qualities that are present inside each of one of us at all times: compassion, justice, kindness, forgiveness. Farid un-Din Attar, The Conference of the BirdsĮach of us contains “colors” inside, which remain hidden by our mere humanity. Each one of us contains hidden jewels inside. There’s only the death of what has been masking the colors inside.
That’s the secret: there is no turning, no changing. Image by Stanley Zimney/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0). With the “green” gone, the other colors that have been there all along - the magical reds, golds, and oranges - begin to express themselves. With the winter season coming, and the process of photosynthesis being without the key ingredients of warmth and sunshine, trees begin to break down chlorophyll. The hidden secret of fall: the leaves don’t actually “turn” colors. It is chlorophyll that gives leaves their distinctive green color, and it is (along with sunshine) the key ingredient in the magical, life-producing process of photosynthesis. Leaves are usually green because of chlorophyll. The reasoning astonished me then, and I have since come to see more and more spiritual wisdom in it as I enter the autumn of my own life. I remember learning in a botany course about the reason that a deciduous tree’s leaves turn colors. I love all of those, but mostly fall is a season to meditate on colors, death, and divine presence.īefore becoming a scholar of religion, like every Muslim student at the university, I studied medicine. (OK, that was this week.)Ī lot of people celebrate fall season with pumpkin pie, sweaters, and taking in crisp mornings. As a kid, I used to love to dive through piles of raked leaves.
In upstate New York, North Carolina, and Iran, I’ve gotten to see streets paved gold and red, with leaves crunching under my feet. I’ve been blessed to live in places where the time of fall is magical.
0 kommentar(er)
