The Winter Storm

In the Quiet Leadership work i set up the final session using an illustration about how trees lose their leaves to weather the winter storms.

If they keep hold of their leaves through the winter, they catch more wind and hold more snow, and for some that leads the bough to break. So the loss of the leaves is not an act of death and decay, but rather one of renewal and adaptation.

I was reminded of this on holiday last week, walking around an old orchard in a country estate: the floor was littered with drifts of leaves, many different colours, and i gathered some up with my son.

He is increasingly aware of the seasons: he noticed that our pumpkin had reappeared, something that he remembered from last year.

Things come and go, but it is often the ‘letting go’ that is the hardest part.

I think we often tie our power and pride to those things, and so to lose them, to leave them behind, or to have them taken from us, feels like an act of violence instead of freedom.

Perhaps we are better off when we learn to leave some things behind.