I'm always fascinated by the beauty of fall. It's one of the few weather-related things I would miss if I were to ever leave the Midwest. I love the change of color, the crispy crunching of leaves, the cool breeze.

What I love most is the picture it paints of death and rebirth. I think that perfectly illustrates the cycles we have to go through in life.

There are times in our lives where we have to break away from a part of ourselves. Whether it's a sin that we've been holding onto, a relationship that isn't good for us, our spending habits... Whatever it might be, it's usually tough to just let it go. We don't want to just pluck it from our tree.

So we slowly start to sever ties. As we consciously try to avoid the sin, stop seeing a person as much, stop spending outrageously, the leaf begins to turn orange. The leaf still seems so appealing and is still a part of us, but we know if we don't get rid of it soon, it's just going to cause long-term damage.

So we sever more ties. We start finding ways to take our mind off the sin, we start spending time with different people, we start budgeting our money. And the leaf turns red. It still looks beautiful. It could probably be nurtured back to life.

But is it worth the long-term damage? Is it worth damaging the tree?

So we sever the final ties. We fill our time with constructive activities, we start building new relationships, we find wise ways to use our money. The leaf finishes it's life and falls from our tree.

Here's where the best part comes in: rebirth.

When we are able to break away from those things in our lives, it opens us up to new growth. We can begin to make a difference in others' lives. We can start to build close and fostering relationships. We can start using our resources to benefit others.

All things that couldn't happen if we just held on to those old leaves.

Isn't it beautiful?