Autumn again- 2011

This was based on an extract from 'The Virginian Letters' dated 17^th of April 2011. Which is correspondence between ‘J’ in Virginia and myself.

Dear ‘J’,

Where once the falling leaves would leave me with melancholy, where once I saw the loss of leaves as loss of life itself and autumn as the slow dying that leads to death - that devil winter, now I see autumn as being part of a glorious cycle, for the tree still lives. It merely sheds its leaves, its dressing... and then it rests until spring where life starts again.... and those autumn colours!!.. My god the colours are amazing!!! Yellows, reds, browns, purples…so many combinations and no two leaves are coloured exactly alike! I know for I have checked!

I sometimes I find myself standing in the street, or the park, transfixed by autumn... the leaves floating through the air, sometimes spiraling, the colours of the leaves moving with the breeze, or collected in piles on the ground…. If I could choose what season to die in, I would wish it to be in mid-autumn..  It is a time where nature informs us that life continues....It's not a statement that I shall arise (so relevant to Easter! Which is but days away!), instead it says-‘though I am gone, something else will be born and life goes on differently, but as beautifully.  Mourn not for me, for I was here for as long as was meant…’.

matthew.