The Death Of Each Of Us

The death of each of us is in the order of things;
it follows life as surely as night follows day.
We can take the tree of life as a symbol.
The human race is the trunk and branches of this tree,
and individual men and women are the leaves,
which appear one season, flourish for a summer, and then die.
I too am like a leaf of this tree,
and one day I shall be torn off by a storm,
or simply decay and fall and mingle with the earth at it's roots.
But, while I live,
I am conscious of the tree's flowing sap and steadfast strength.
When I die and fall the tree of life remains,
nourished to some small degree by my life.
Millions of leaves have preceded me and millions will follow me;
but the tree itself grows and endures.