A Middle-aged Leaf

I asked for a dream that would help me and I dreamed of a colorful maple leaf floating on a still lake.

My friend said the maple leaf has no ability to manipulate its path or change its destination. He said it's controlled by the flow of the lake and will eventually be washed onto shore and left, as the water continues on its path.

I'm glad it wasn't his dream.

I think the beautiful maple leaf was at the end of her season on the tree.  Once a yellow-green bud, she'd grown into a large green leaf - one of hundreds of thousands.  She worked hard with photosynthesis, providing shade for what was below, providing protection for bird, squirrel, and beings she didn't even know.  She often provided a meal for a small worm or two.  She turned her face to greet the sun each day.  Then over the course of a few day she turned red and yellow and seemed to shimmer in the autumn sun.

One day she just let go.  She floated gently down and landed on the silver lake beneath her branch.  She enjoyed being held and gently rocked there.  It was another season, though a shorter one.  She became a raft for dragonfly faeries and a nursery for water insects and a model for a photographer. The water grew colder and it pulled her down where she lay on the sand and rocks under the water. 

There she completed releasing her energy.  She was no longer leaf.  She became snail, fertile mud, insect, fish, oxygen, nitrogen and the cycle continued.