Transitioning through Nature’s Live Stories

"...but Freddie's summer soon passed. It vanished on an October night. He had never felt it so cold. All the leaves shivered with the cold. They were coated with a thin layer of white, which quickly melted and left them dew drenched and sparkling in the morning sun. Again it was Daniel who explained that they had experienced their first frost. The sign that it was fall and that winter would soon come."

Leo Buscaglia's masterpiece; 'The Fall of Freddie the Leaf' recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. This short fable and piece of art (photography and storybook) suits me in transitioning each year. Watching the leaves change color before the Fall has given me infinite hope about closures and transitions. Each year, whether with patients, interns, students or even with my neighbors and children, I return to 'The Fall if Freddie the Leaf' and find the sweetest orchestration of Fall-which metaphorically provides comfort and spiritual insight in the shift from warmth to cold, from greens to barren trees. Which fables, myths, art works or stories have best addressed transitions in your practice or within your own personal quest or journey through change? Let's hear about some myths, or books and when they proven to serve you in a particular time of need, either personally or professionally.