Evanescent Yellow

by Rollie J.

The warm afternoon sun felt comforting on my face as I ran along the bike path between Dike East and Lindenwood Park. Twice a week while Shane is at soccer practice, I run this five-mile loop taking in quiet suburban neighborhoods and this lovely park. A crisp, cool fall breeze at my back added to the beauty of the day as the scent of fallen leaves filled my lungs with fresh invigorating air. The paved trail gently curved and undulated like a serpent tightly paralleling the river course. It felt good to be alive and I silently offered up many thank you prayers for life, vitality, health, and the beauty around me.

Rounding a bend, I came beneath a cluster of mighty and majestic cottonwood trees. The girth of their trunks demanded attention, as did their impressive height. They stood stoically, stout, proud and attentive as if they were the sentinels of this entire river bottom. Their presence, strength, and size spoke to the wisdom of their years. I had run this trail many times throughout the spring, summer and fall and each time I had nodded my head to them in homage to their presence, splendor, and beauty. But today they were even more impressive as if they gave off light and color to this bend in the river.

As I drive home each afternoon, I take one final curve or bend in our road before reaching our short dead-end street. This bend in the road is lined with poplar trees. These humble, gentle trees bend slightly over the roadway and for the past few weeks have all been aflame with a bright yellow foliage. Poplars are the first trees to shake and rustle with even the slightest breeze. Many days I begin both my morning and end my day being waved at by quiet rustling and shimmering of the bright, cheerful yellow dappled trees.

Each fall in October during our Maah Daah Hey hiking trip to the western badlands, we walk through a barren, dry, desert-like landscape. Only the dark green of the evergreen Junipers offset the gray and beige of the striated rugged terrain. But occasionally, we encounter a lone cottonwood tree that seems almost aflame. It offers a beacon of light, life, beauty, and color in a barren land. But alas, this is a short-lived color pallet. It too is evanescent yellow.

Many evenings and mornings of late find me in a tree stand waiting and watching the natural world unfold as I await the presence of a monster buck. Most times out in the forest or field edge I cannot help but smile. The woods of late have a common theme here in the Fargo/Moorhead area as most of our local ash, elm and basswood trees have turned in unison and this year’s dress code theme is simply evanescent yellow.

Yellow is on my brain and I am reminded daily that this is our color of the season. But it alas is not a permanent color… it is only evanescent.

Evanescent. What a great word. I like saying it, hearing it, and reading it. Evanescent; fleeting, passing, brief, momentary, short-lived, ephemeral are all synonyms. And this word perfectly describes the yellow that fills my senses daily of late. The majestic cottonwoods, the gentle poplars, and the ash and basswoods are all only aflame for a brief, fleeting and transitory time. It is a beautiful but short-lived finite time of yellow.

These next few weeks will be filled with pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. Pumpkins really have but two choices. Some, being fearful or fear-filled, choose to stay in the pumpkin patch, after all, it’s the only life they’ve known. It is safe, quiet and nothing is demanded of them but to sit and stay in the same place. Play it safe, don’t step outside the box, don’t take risks, go for security and comfort. Never look beyond the patch. Those pumpkins will in short order die on the vine, never having moved more than an inch from where they were born, safe and secure. They will die, having never impacted anyone for fear, laziness, or comfort.

Other pumpkins will submit to movement, to the unknown, to the great adventure of what’s out there, to the thrill of taking a risk. They will soon come under the hands of a creative teenager or babbling four-year old, or artsy-fartsy grown up. They will pick up triangle eyes, and pointy teeth and a jagged smile. Some will look rough and awkward, others a work of art. But each of these risk-taking pumpkins will soon shine a light from within to adorn a doorstep or deck, or window. The beautiful, glowing yellow light will not be from themselves, but rather a gentle light that was planted within them, and that light will shine forth and bring light, and beauty, warmth and smiles to all who encounter them. This too will be an evanescent yellow light. It will be brief, fleeting passing yellow light.

You and I are all evanescent. Realistically, in the big picture of life, we are all here for but a brief, very temporary, and short period of time. Our lives are transitory and fleeting. As I age, I come to know and feel the reality of this truth more deeply. People come and go in our lives. Accidents, illnesses, cancers, dementia, wars, floods, hurricanes, fires, Covids, and tragedies rob us of loved ones, friends, and family. This IS the reality of our lives on earth.

So, I ask you… are you allowing the beautiful light and love of God to shine in and through you to the world around you? Like the mighty cottonwoods, ash and poplars are you sharing the beauty of God’s love, forgiveness, and grace through your life? Are you allowing the gentle candle of Jesus to shine through your being to illuminate God’s light into a dark, hurting, and difficult world? Have you surrendered your life into the hands of a magnificent Creator and said, “Have your way with and in me? Do with me as you please! Create in me something useful for the world.”  Or have you just settled for the same ol’, same ol’ life in the pumpkin patch?

Some of us will live to only 17, some to 38, some to 53, others maybe even make it to 100. But in the big scope of life here on planet earth, we are all only evanescent yellow.

So how will you live your fleeting life? For whom will you live your brief life? Will you just live for you? Or will you surrender to God and allow Him to burn his beautiful yellow light into this world?

-- Rollie J.