I wrote a song called Let It Turn for my fall album Give Me Fall, and the central image of that song is the leaves releasing from the branch. Not because they are forced off. Not because something violent happens. But because it is time, and they know it is time, and they let go without argument and without grief and without trying to negotiate a few more weeks on the branch.
I have been thinking about that image since I wrote the song and I cannot stop thinking about it now that the trees outside my window are actually doing it. Actually letting go. The whole thing is happening right now in real time and it is as beautiful and as convicting as it always is.
Because here is the truth. I am not good at letting go.
I am good at holding. I am good at managing and maintaining and keeping things in place. I am good at carrying things longer than I probably need to, longer than is good for me, longer than the season is asking me to. And then fall arrives and the leaves show me again what they know that I keep forgetting. That the releasing is not a failure. That the letting go is not a loss. That the most beautiful moment, the one where the colors are the richest and the light is the most extraordinary and everything looks like it was painted for a specific and intentional reason, that moment comes right before the letting go. The tree burns most beautifully right before it releases.
I think about this in terms of seasons of life, not just seasons of weather. There are things I have held onto past the right time, ideas and expectations and versions of myself and versions of relationships, and the holding on has cost me the beauty that comes with the releasing. The tree does not become bare and then regret the summer. It becomes bare and it rests, and in the resting it prepares for what comes next. And what comes next is new growth and new green and an entirely new season of life.
The song says: teach me how to let it turn, the way the leaves do without fear. That is still my prayer. I am still learning it. I think I will be learning it for a long time, probably for as long as the leaves keep showing me how it is done.
There is also something in the timing of this lesson that I find deeply intentional. Fall arrives right before the seasons when we celebrate a baby being born in the most humble of circumstances, and then the turning of a new year, and then the resurrection of everything that seemed dead and gone. The church calendar and the natural calendar are doing the same thing. They are both asking us to let go of what has been so that what is coming can arrive.
I have a project in the works for the winter season that I think is rooted in exactly this. The idea that the old stories, the ancient traditions, the folklore that has been carried through generations of people who also needed to believe that the darkness does not last, has something to say to us right now. A Folklore Christmas is what I am calling it, and it is something I am making with a great deal of prayer and a great deal of love for the season it belongs to. More details coming soon. Get on my email list here to be the first to hear.
In the meantime, Give Me Fall is on all streaming platforms and the song Let It Turn is on there waiting for you specifically if any of this resonated. Find me on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and Pandora. Follow me so you never miss a new release. Come be part of this community on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Tell me in the comments: what is fall teaching you this year? What are you learning to let turn? I would love to hear from you.
Let it turn. Let it go gold. The best is still ahead.
Warmly, Melanie Grace
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