Old is Beautiful

Fall is here! I love the fall. It means that Halloween’s just around the corner.

As I was walking this morning, I noticed a leaf, lying on the ground, and I picked it up, struck by its ugliness. It was asymmetrical, generally rusty in color, but with some dark green and some other dark splotches. It had a little hole in it, and it was just a little dirty all over. But I wiped the dirt off and studied it more closely. Its lack of symmetry was normal for the type of tree it came from. Then I was amazed by the variety of colors in this one leaf. And I guess there's something charming even about the little hole in the middle. It shows that the leaf went through something in life - maybe what used to fill the hole was used to fill some little worm. People are much the same as this leaf.

There is beauty in our lack of perfection, in our flaws. I love the signs of having lived - of old age! Wrinkles! Gray hair! I will wear them with honor. Why should the changing leaves, or the twisted, knotted courses of an old tree trunk receive all the admiration? Are not the graying hair and the jutting veins of some aging person's leg just as beautiful? But if you find no physical beauty in aging, consider the experiences, the knowledge, and the wisdom of the aged. True, youth is beautiful, but aging has its own beauty as well.