Took Red and Lenore for a walk in the deep woods yesterday and I looked for some of the first leaves of autumn, backlit by a setting September sun. Early autumn leaves are filled with color and character, strong hints of change and new beginnings. Life and death are not different things, they are part of the same things, as much as we deny death and are stunned when it occurs. The autumn leaves understand birth and rebirth, they teach me about it every year.