This day is officially the end of summer. The sky is clear with a few clouds, and below our balcony, the trees in the trails are changing their colours, signalling the start of autumn.
The sad part is that these plants on the balcony are beginning to wither—the plant’s stems are getting thinner, their former green colours are now pale, the leaves are also pale, and they are turning into little brownish.
In short, these plants are slowly dying, and I don’t want to see with my own eyes their total demise. At this early age, I want to uproot all of them in their pots and collect them into bags for proper disposition. It’s a fact of life, even among plants, that there is such a thing as the end of life.
Since I have been watering these plants, seeing them go is hard. And these tomatoes, bitter melon, pepper, and mint plants have given us their produce for the whole summer season.
The other day, with the weather hovering at 13 C, it was cold, I uprooted all these plants and before I did that, I picked the remaining two cherry tomatoes still attached to the stem, then dumped everything in the black plastic bag. I swept the balcony’s floor of some spilled soil and fallen leaves.
After dumping these dried and dead plants into the garbage bins, it feels like putting them into a cremation and everything goes back to the dust.
In a sense, I’m also grateful because before I completely got rid of these plants, I had picked up one little green pepper which I later used to spice up my soy sauce dip, and these two little cherry tomatoes which I intend to use their seeds for next summer planting season. In one way, I’ll be giving a new life to these cherry tomatoes next year.
Today, with the chilly vibes and the cloudy sky around me, it’s already sad seeing these plants go, but it’s part of life, as God’s Word says,” The green grass dries up. The blossom withers. But the word of our God endures forever”. (Isa 40:8).
This summer, it’s been a delight to look over the lake on the balcony with all these plants in front of us, giving us the feeling of freshness amid the summer heat.
Now, we are back to square one, putting all the soil in the plastic container and storing these garden trover, pots, watering cans, garden fork, pruner and gloves for another season.
With the start of autumn, the leaves of those trees on the trail below us begin to change their colours gradually; we will undoubtedly see their complete transformation when we see only those trees stand without their leaves.
While it’s a delight to see the beautiful changing colours of these trees, and falling leaves on the ground, the feeling of loneliness is still within us—less, shortened daylights, gloomy skies, even at 7 in the morning, it’s still dark in the sky.
Even if we feel sad looking at these withered plants and trees, this life still offers us some consolation in the sense that by looking beyond these plants and trees, the majestic view of the lake is within the horizon.
The leaves of those trees will surely die and fall in the ground, and for a while, those trees will be completely barren, but they will come back alive again to give us a beautiful sight to behold.
Our balcony is now clean and cleared up of any trace of plants, it’s now ready for the onslaught of strong winds of autumn, and the heavy snowstorms of the coming winter.
Oh, as the song goes, That’s Life.