You Can't Stop the Leaves from Falling Down

Yesterday I spent some time raking leaves in my yard—the first time this fall. I know it’s far too early to bother, I can see the trees still heavy with green leaves (not even turned orange yet!). But there’s something about creating a little order in a disordered world that appeals to me this morning.

So much of life, really, can be seen as raking too early, or raking when we could just as well not bother. Why make our beds each morning, when we’re just going to pull the covers back a few hours later and crawl in? In fact, why bother getting up at all?

There’s nothing like fall to bring on an existential crisis, a collective wondering of what life means. And it’s one place where I think our religious tradition is a true salvation. We are the meaning-makers, our history tells us…the point of it all is whatever we make it. For me, it helps to think of the biggest we I can. We, the people of the world. We, the people spanning all history. We, the deeply connected ecosystem.

We are writing a story together, a story that is so big and so long we won’t ever get a chance to read it. But every day, we have the opportunity to add to the story, and to make our addition, our chapter, one that tells of hope and love, of relationships and giving, of hard work and attention in the world. We won’t have the chance to see how the story ends—and I won’t ever have a completely leaf-free lawn—but we can make our contribution to the kind of story we think we’d like. Rake on.