![Country Lane by Jongleur100 [Public domain]](https://astrogemgeomancy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/1024px-Country_lane-700.jpg)
Just in case you missed the opportunity last year, you should start looking now!
- Being able to get near to lots of deciduous trees
- Just after a spell of settled dry weather and the wind starts picking up
- Shoes or boots which are light enough to let you move quickly but which have a good grip on (possibly wet) leaves, grass, loose ground, etc.
- A wind of anything over 5 mph (8 k/h) even if those are only gusts
- A spirit of expectant fun
Optional items to take along:
- A still or video camera
- A friend who shares your love of fun, the outdoors and connecting with Gaia
Method
I’ve found it best to stand with the wind and the tree on my left. This means that as you spot a leaf falling you are not chasing after it (if the wind is behind you) or running towards it (if the wind is in front of you – it can be difficult to get the range and moment right to grab the leaf if you are running towards the leaf and it is flying at you).
Wait for a gust of wind and become alert to any movement in the tree canopy. Leaves will sometimes come at unexpected times. Nature can tease you like that.
Sometimes you will not be able to catch a leaf in your chosen spot. Try somewhere else. You may even have to wait for another day later in the season when the leaves are more ready to fall.
Sometimes you will be successful very quickly, sometimes it will take an hour or more. Sometimes it doesn’t happen at all. Nature plays by her own rules.
Take care running and lunging for leaves! Sometimes roots and rocks can trip you or you may slip if you are not careful.
When you do catch a leaf savour the moment. Look at it carefully. Caress it. Know that nobody has ever touched that leaf before and that you have joined with it in part of its natural and much bigger life-cycle… and then let it gently fall to the earth to continue its voyage.
![Falling leaf by Ryan Hodnett [CC BY-SA 4.0]](https://astrogemgeomancy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Falling_Leaf-500.jpg)
Why do it?
Well, it’s a fun thing for children to do when they’re out for a walk.It’s for lovers: it’s a gentle competition to see who can do it best… or first; it’s a shared, simple, mutual experience.It’s for all of us. It can bring back memories of other people and other places: of childhood, of being free of the world’s cares; of other times when we connected with nature.
And for some, it is a moment in time like no other.
It is a precious moment in which we ‘touch the untouched’ and the ‘never to be exactly the same ever again’… like the other really important moments in our life.
And it is a moment in which we connect with that special band of people who also take their time and touch nature.
Perhaps they are just nature-lovers.
Perhaps they are philosophers who see the turning of the seasons in one more day, who see the heart-breaking sadness of the beauty in aging, who see the metaphor in their own lives, knowing that others still care, still interact, still remember.
Perhaps they recognise a genuinely humanly spiritual moment in their hand, as we touch the hair of the goddess. Connecting all of us
…always.
‘We few, we happy few…’
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If you take a picture or a video send me a link HERE and I’ll re-post it on the blog so that others can share with you.
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