I have a request for you. Next time you go outside, I want you take a look, a deep hard look, at the world around you. What do you see? Maybe depending on where you live, the leaves are changing colors or, more dramatically, they might be falling and gathering together in clumps underneath trees and on the sidewalks. It’s rather shocking to look at if you really think about it – although leaves falling from trees can be beautiful, their colors certainly are, what you’re really staring at is the orderly franticness of death in the world.

The leaves are dying – and it’s tough to think like that, but at Atlanta Jewish & Interfaith Weddings, I think it’s important to be reminded of death’s touch in the world, because it makes everything you experience more important, because you can never predict when you become a leaf falling from that tree of life. The least you can do is show off your true colors, shine brightly and bravely like a flashlight in a haunted house, because when you shine like that, the love you experience and send out into the world will be stronger.

Love is not meant to be simple; it’s complex, like the diorama of colors plunging to the ground during these crisp autumn months – and maybe, just maybe, that’s what this season is all about.