Last weekend Christine looked out of the window and declared, ‘Oh no, they’re all gone’.
I wasn’t sure if she was referring to the neighbours, the cars or the sheep!
Turns out she was talking about the leaves.
It’s not like it’s a surprise; leaves leave trees.
But why so quick?
It’s down to abscission, or to be more accurate – abscission cells.
It’s a hormone in leaf-shedding trees which sends a message to every leaf that says, ‘That’s it, time for you to hop off, and do it… now.
Once the memo is received, tiny cells develop at the point where leaf meets branch.
They are the ‘abscission’ cells. Ab from the Latin ‘away’ and scindere meaning ‘to cut’ – think scissors.
And because nature is brilliant, the leaf does as it’s told and boom… in just a few days, a lawn full of leaves and trees of bare branches.
And then the tree can use the winter to rest, regroup and create something beautiful in the spring.
So what about us humans? We’re supposedly at the top of the chain and cleverer about all these things.
We know how to hang on to stuff – way longer than we need to – even when we’re given a ‘time to let go’ message.
But are we actually being cleverer? Or are we just denying what we know to be right?
Letting go is tough.
However – like the tree – if we don’t, we can soon run out of energy trying to hold on.
What can you let go of? What must you let go of?
Time for some abscission?
Please share your thoughts below.
Be Brilliant!
Michael
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