The leaf

I went to pick up the bike I had parked under a tree this Sunday morning. As I started the ignition, a dry leaf floated down from the tree and landed on the petrol tank. The falling motion of the leaf was so graceful that I had to pause for a moment till it actually landed.
Looking up, I saw a huge tree. The leaves in this tree were of different shades between deep green and brown depending on their age. Some leaves were small, tender and fresh just a few days old and some leaves were totally dried up about to fall. On one end, this leaf had fallen from the tree, but somewhere else on the same tree a few new leaves were budding. All this time, some birds were sitting on the tree and some were flying away. In the process, they were breaking away some of the green and young leaves. There were a few leaves being eaten away by worms and insects.
All this time, the tree was swaying gently totally oblivious to what was happening to the leaves. Just because a leaf fell off, the tree did not die, it continued to sway.
Just because a leaf fell, the other leaves did not stop living.

My teacher once told me a story...
Just imagine - There is this train, the origin and the destination of this train are not known. All we know is that the train is going somewhere. We are already travelling on this train towards some destination. On the way, at some station in between, someone boarded the train and joined us in the journey. We get excited, we get to know each other and establish a connection with the fellow passenger. Now, his station arrives and he has to get off.
Now, just because this fellow passenger is gone, do we mourn forever? Do we go into depression? Does that mean the end of our journey?
NO... we continue to travel till we reach our station.

Now, just imagine that each station on the train is represented by a day. A date. For example, on 11th December 1929, a passenger ("X") boarded the train. Another passenger joined on 09th May 1960. Another passenger came on 22nd November 1982 and so many other passengers boarded the train.
26th January 2003 was the destination for this passenger "X" and she got off the train. For the second and the third passenger and for so many more, the journey is still on.
Another passenger boarded this train on 02nd October 1969 and got off the train on 30th January 1948.

Did the train stop going? No. Oh yes, the other passengers miss the passengers who got off at some station, but the train goes on.

Some people, some things, some relationships come to our life for a purpose, and they are destined to leave once the purpose is served.

Maybe one day, even my station will come, a leaf will drop from the tree. But thats the way it is meant to be.
The tree lives on...
The train goes on...

I do miss the passengers who got off during my journey... the leaves which fell during my lifetime... but there is no pain.

I don't know where I will use this learning, but what I do know is that this learning will make my journey a little more peaceful.