The tree-lined one-way street next to the YMCA where I work: In the spring, I turn the corner and gasp. These trees bloom and drop bright pink blossoms along the curb that pile up like confetti after a big parade. But, I'll come back only a day later and the blossoms will have all blown away. In the fall, the same trees change color and drop leaves of every shade. But, within one week the sun will come out again, it will dry and heat up the ground and that is when the wind will sweep the leaves away, all within one day.

_

They come and go so quickly
Spring and Fall...
as if they had not really
come at all.
Perhaps
we could not take
too much beauty,
breath-catching glory,
ecstasy without relief;
and so
God made them
brief.

-Ruth Bell Graham