Things Happen for a Reason

MIXED MEDIA UPCYCLE “THINGS HAPPEN FOR A REASON”

I’ve been crunching  leaves that are scattered on the sidewalk on my daily walk.  We had a lot of wind the other day and so the path was also littered with little tree branches.  After I stepped over them I thought “Hey, I can use those!”  So I tucked my water bottle in the crook of my arm and finished the last 1/2 mile of my walk packing my treasure.  That got me thinking of making a mixed media collage using these metal leaf brooches.

 

GARAGE SALE IDEAS

I got this really nice wooden plaque that is edged in burlap a few weekends ago.

 

I wanted to preserve the border print and also make the collage a background to use these metal leaf brooches.

 

 

I have this Patina Alcohol Ink which is very opaque and I just squirted it on the “HOME” image and smoothed the edges with my fingers.  My fingers are always a mess!  LOL  After the alcohol ink was dry (2 minutes) I used the gold pen to make a border and smoothed the edges of the gold ink with my fingers also.

 

Wood Plaque and Leaf Brooches Upcycle

Next I used a paint pen to draw on some branches and used Aleene’s Tacky Glue to secure the leaf shaped brooches.

Once I had a silly thought about Adam in the Garden of Eden.  The Lord put him in charge of tending to the garden and came everyday for a visit.  One day I was thinking about the deciduous trees in the garden and wondered if God had warned Adam that the trees would lose their leaves.  The first deciduous tree shedding its leaves would appear that the tree was in the process of dying.  I giggled to myself when I pictured Adam avoiding that area of the garden on their daily walk so as not to disappoint the Lord because the trees were dying.

Fall is such a good object lesson concerning the seasons of life.  The leaves fall from the tree.  It happens for a reason.  I discovered an article on the NPR Website that described the process that causes the falling leaves:

“It’s because trees use “scissors” to cut their leaves off.  We call this season the “fall” because all around us right now (if you live near leaf-dropping trees in a temporal zone), leaves are turning yellow and looking a little dry and crusty. So when a stiff breeze comes along, those leaves seem to “fall” off, thus justifying the name “fall.”

Sounds reasonable, no? But the truth is much more interesting.

According to Peter Raven, president of the Missouri Botanical Garden and a renowned botanist, the wind doesn’t gently pull leaves off trees. Trees are more proactive than that. They throw their leaves off. Instead of calling this season “The Fall,” if trees could talk they’d call this the “Get Off Me” season.

Here’s why:

Around this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, as the days grow shorter and colder, those changes trigger a hormone in leaf-dropping trees that sends a chemical message to every leaf that says, in essence, “Time to go! Let’s part company!”

Once the message is received, says Raven, little cells appear at the place where the leaf stem meets the branch. They are called “abscission” cells. They have the same root as the word scissors, meaning they are designed, like scissors, to make a cut.

That’s where the tree gives each leaf a push, leaving it increasingly dangling. “So with that very slender connection, they’re sort of ready to be kicked off,” says Raven, and then a breeze comes along and finishes the job.

So the truth is, the wind isn’t making the leaves fall. It’s the tree.

Raven explains that leaves are basically the kitchen staff of a tree. During the spring, summer and early fall they make the food that helps the tree grow and thrive and reproduce. When the days get short and cold, food production slows down, giving the tree an option: It can keep the kitchen staff or it can let it go.”

As a Christian I know there are times the Lord has sent “abscission” cells through circumstances and problems so things have FALLEN off of me.  That is why  I know “things happen for a reason” because when we are in an Autumn season the old and comfortable isn’t needed anymore.  When it goes, there is winter where all you can do is trust that spring will come and new life will spring up.  I can let go when I am sure things happen for a reason.