Today, waiting on the schoolhouse steps, I saw something I had never seen before. My back against the warm brick wall, in happy prospect, I stared abstracted towards the red-orange of autumn on a tree. At the very center of my concentration was a single leaf; a torn yellow-green, not even red yet. But it fell. I saw the precise moment of release - the instant the leaf actually disconnected from the branch. It was …showed first 75 words of 377 total…

…showed last 75 words of 377 total…down by destiny and self-aspiration. But it was the progress, the action and direction of the moment that mattered. I found timelessness. What the leaf meant as a whole, was what the leaf meant at each moment. And at this moment, the leaf is hanging by its green stem - it is at the point of release - it is falling - it is floating - and it is rising over the brick red schoolhouse.