What falling leaves betide

This brisk, breezy autumn morning I sit in my back yard and contemplate natural and personal rhythms. I wonder that we have not had a single frost, though it is already mid October. None the less, the trees drop leaves in the annual cycle of dormancy. The lawn is dabbled (thickly) with withered oak leaves and branches.  Yesterday I mowed 1/3 of the yard, enjoying the tinge of mint mingle with the musk of oak leaves as the churned through the reel mower blades. I delight in watching the oak leaves twirl and spin their way on the gusts of wind as they fall ever so slowly to the ground.
    I feel I too am in a slow cycle of dormancy, dropping aspects that would no longer sustain me in changing conditions, even if the sharp frost has yet to occur.  My thoughts, energies, and plans slow to protect my long term survival and thriving. Shorter days result in the subtle shift I naturally react to like a well rooted tree. I am in no hurry for the change, I bide my time and hold fast to the deeper actions that sustain me.