How do you turn what you let go of into something beautiful? – Like the trees in Autumn as they shed their colorful leaves

There are things in my life I am ready to let go of. The Oak and Maple are radiating golds and reds before they let what no longer serves them float down in a spiral dance of freedom. How can I follow their example as they shed the old to make ready for the new come next spring?
 

Reposted from the Parabola Tumblr

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

–Mary Oliver, “When I Am Among the Trees” from Thirst, (Beacon Press, 2006). With gratitude to Whiskey River.

Art Credit: Cecil Collins (1908-1989), Morning, Oil on Canvas, 1943