Extravagance!
“Nature is, above all, profligate. Don't believe them when they tell you how economical and thrifty nature is, whose leaves return to the soil. Wouldn't it be cheaper to leave them on the tree in the first place? This deciduous business alone is a radical scheme, the brainchild of a deranged manic-depressive with limitless capital.Extravagance! Nature will try anything once.” Annie Dillard - A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Do you ever pass your commuting time looking out the window and finding things you like?
Maybe it's a favorite house (the stone one straight from the mind of J.K. Rowling gets my attention), or door (I giggle at the bright yellow one), or a landscape you want to copy (who doesn't wish for an English garden?).
In my daydreaming, I usually don't pay much attention to trees until fall arrives. Then, I wait until the leaves are at their peak, and I select my favorite. This year's selection makes me happy every time I pass. (See above.)
I am drawn toward the extravagance of fall.
I wonder why God made a world that doesn't just function, but is excessively, extravagantly beautiful. Oscar Wilde said, "where there is no extravagance there is no love," and it occurs to me that maybe God made things beautiful, not for some evolutionary purpose or to show off his creative skills, but to show love.
Of course I don't really know his motivation, but I do know love that is lavish and extravagant is a thing of beauty.
I wish that for you.