Passages

Today I found a leaf
on the rain-wet pavement.
It had lain there for a long time.
Cars had come and gone,
rain and sun had done their work.
All that was left now
was a delicate web of veins,
held together by a sturdy stem,
and a faint shimmer
of its original color.

Today I feel like that leaf
embodying the passage of time,
after weathering the challenges
of many seasons,
sun, rain, and earthquakes,
my Self
a gossamer web
of essence, yet
remembering the greening
it had once lived.