Patrick McDonnell, Mutts (September 22, 2014)


Charles Schulz, Peanuts (October 6, 2014)

Redbud Ginkgo Biloba Red Oak White Oak Eucalyptus White Ash

Autumn Leaves Vivaldi's music, Brueghel's painting, Keats' "Ode" celebrating Autumn— and now the comics are doing it too. The terrier Earl in Mutts sits beneath a tree watching a leaf falling with a quote from Emily Brontë's poem— "Every leaf speaks bliss to me fluttering from the autumn tree." Two weeks later in Peanuts, another leaf is falling with the beagle Snoopy leaping in delight: "Thank you for the dance!" Autumn is the harvest season, a time of gratitude for nature's abundant gifts. In the Bhagavad Gita 9:26, Krishna says: "He who offers to me with devotion only a leaf— this I accept because with a pure heart, it was offered with love." So I gathered leaves in a plastic pumpkin— five-lobed red, orange, yellow Sugar Maples, green heart-shaped Redbuds, fan-shaped Ginkgos, bristle-tipped Red Oak & round-lobed White Oak, crescent-shaped Eucalyptus, oval-shaped Ash, bell-shaped Elms, lance-shaped Weeping Willows, star-shaped Sweet Gums, giant-lobed Sycamores— over a hundred leaves for the Great Pumpkin. Seeing Snoopy dancing and Earl sitting still conjured up the Mundaka Upanishad 3:1— "There are two birds dwelling on the same tree, one eats fruits thereof, the other looks in silence."— symbol of the active and contemplative life practiced by the Irish sage Terence Gray with pseudonym Wei Wu Wei— "Action, Non-action" growing wine grapes while writing 8 Zen classics on awakened awareness and "Know Thyself", living a simple life of timeless balance— This is what Autumn Equinox teaches us with equanimity of darkness and light.             Peter Y. Chou             Mountain View, 10-14-2014

Sugar Maple Elm Weeping Willow Sweet Gum Sycamore