True Colors

Fall "fell" quietly during the night while I was fast asleep, I think, so this is the first full day of fall. With temperatures in the 60's, we are already experiencing some seasonal weather. Crisp brown leaves are falling onto the porch, the ivy on the trellises is turning red, and I noticed today that the elm trees have some yellowing beginning to show under the green.

You did know that the brown or red or yellow is already there, didn't you? When the leaves stop producing the chlorophyll that makes them appear green, we can see what color they really are. As the warm days get shorter and the nights get longer and cooler, the growing season winds down. Chemicals with long names continue their activity or even increase it, and thus we see the varied autumn yellows and golds, browns, red, orange and almost purple.

People too "show their true colors," we say, when they display what they are really like or what they are really thinking. That is not always the same as what they have been saying! Often at a time of particular need or even crisis, a person's true colors shine through. When we see what another is capable of in a tight situation, we are sometimes quite surprised. And sometimes we are dismayed. When it's you or me in that critical moment, we may be amazed at our own personal resources. Or disappointed.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, "Into each life some rain must fall," meaning we will all endure some difficult, dreary times when gusts of adversity blow and our hopes fail and fall like dry brown leaves. Autumn comes to us all, not only as a season of the year, but as a season of life—not just once, but many times as one cycle of our growth winds down but before a new one begins. Remember that it is often in this "down time" that we show our true colors.

MaryMartha