Why Sigh?

With their leaves as fine as feathers,

The graceful trees must sway and sigh

With every passing breeze,

But why, like they, must we?

These trees have been swaying since the dawn of time, for as long as there have been eyes to see them and a heart to feel the breeze of loss. "While loved, flowers fall" says old Dogen and he wasn't wrong. "All the world is falling" sings Antony in "The Rapture", and I think he has the right of it. But "Don't let it bring you down, it's only castles burning." Trees sigh, flowers fall and castles burn, it's the heart that doesn't fail. It is because we love these ones that fall that we feel the breeze at all.

So be brave. Live and love. And when it's blowing, feel the breeze and know that you are alive.

The feathery leaves seen above are the shadows of a pepper tree the afternoon sun casts on my bedroom window.