As I was driving down the same road I use to drive down during the summer, back when all the trees looked alike. I noticed things had changed without me evening noticing it.
I had been moving so fast, consumed by my own growth. I never stopped to see if things around me were changing. I was only focused on where I was going.
I remember how each green leaf in the summer seemed identical. Each tree united, standing firmly side by side, swaying carelessly in the wind.
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As the seasons began to change and fall rose again, I began to notice those same identical green trees began to change colors. The thing I noticed the most was how similar fall is to human nature.
You can be standing next to someone for years and think they are just like you, until the seasons change, and circumstances lead you different directions.
Various circumstances can cause friends to become strangers. You begin to realize how their branches produce yellow leaves and your branches produce orange leaves during times of transaction.
Now the true question is, do the differences you face in friendships when circumstances arise define a friendship?
Well, I think how you handle the changes in your relationship is what defines the friendship. Life happens, and some friendships are truly just for a season. Be grateful for those relationships even when you have to stand there and watch the leaves fall.
But hold on to those friendships that last for every season, even during your coldest hour when there is nothing left on your branches to give. Those are the people that are growing with you even though you are naturally taking different paths.
Yes, we all fall short, but how we rise from those differences defines who we are and the relationships we choose to grown in.
