When You're Not That Anymore But Not Quite This Yet Either

I was searching for an image this evening and I came across this photograph of a leaf that I became mesmerised with last autumn. 

I was so struck by how it was no longer green but was not quite red. It had fallen from the tree mid-shift. 

And aren't we all in this state all the time? One foot in something, another foot in what is to come, colours changing, not-quite-there-yet, in-between? 

And we judge ourselves for it, we think we should be doing better, being kinder, already There, happier, thinner, less anxious, more committed, less controlling, not feeling THAT emotion again. 

And yet this leaf is so completely beautiful. So perfectly in-between, so raw in her not-that-anymore-but-not-quite-this-yet-either-ness. 

What if, just for a moment, we became still enough to see how beautiful we too must look from outside ourselves? What if, just for a moment, we could switch off that critical, mean, judgmental voice and just accept the beauty and fullness of where we are right now and how well we are doing?

Maybe this gentleness, this belief in our true beauty, would create a breeze that would quietly blow us into the newness we want to embrace - just when we stop looking.