Black and white but red all over, a maple tree two doors down shows it’s true color. A full blooming tree in January? Must be Florida – or a land dreamt of by those residing in colder climes, fighting off the cabin fever. Migrating birds – both silver-haired and finely feathered – flock south to frolic in sunshine. A pair of nesting hawks screech between treetops as squirrels create a blurry gray barber pole, chasing around the trunk of our backyard oak. The signs of Spring slowly materialize, despite intermittent chilly nights.

Most every January elicits new resolute talk of change, but this year the Changes were more dramatic. People might say they will, or want to, “turn over a new leaf.” This always struck me as odd and rather un-botanical. Plants grow new leaves, they don’t turn over old ones to reveal a previously unseen side. Trees exhibit what psychologists (or is it psychiatrists? I get them mixed up) say should happen to humans if true change is to occur: it must come from within us. Flowers, fruit, and leaves sprout from  inner tissues. Woody plants actually cover up the entire old tree, scars and all, with new wood every year (hence the rings).  Ah, that we could smooth over the wrinkles and wounds of time annually. The down-side, of course, is an increase in girth. Don’t say it …

So where did this “turning over a new leaf” thing come from? As part of a conversational English group for visiting professors and students, I am regularly called upon to explain an odd colloquialism or idiom. For this one, I had no ready answer and so resorted to the source of the answer to life, the universe, and everything: Google.

Leaves grow on trees and trees are made into books, therefore, books have leaves. To quote Wiktionary Leaf : A sheet of a book, magazine, etc (consisting of two pages, one on each face of the leaf). Further, I discovered that the left-hand page of a leaf is the verso, and right-hand page is the recto.

So, turning over a new leaf implies turning a page in the living diary of our life and revealing a new face or a clean face. The Goenglish.com website defines this idiom as “You turn over a new leaf when you commit to changing your life for the better.” So, do we turn the page to read what is there – this new thing we are to become, or is the page blank and waiting for us to pen the new direction?

Trees get their instructions from DNA contained in their meristematic cells and a new shoot forms. These cells differentiate and become buds and then leaves. Where do you get your instructions to initiate change, to fill in that blank page with new directions for life? The news media? Family or friends? A paid professional? The horoscope in the newspaper? A government official? A fortune cookie? A spiritual guide?

Personally, I don’t wait for January to compile a list of things that need to change in my life. As a Christian, I try to allow the Holy Spirit to direct my decisions and to prompt me about change items throughout the year. Change comes from within and when I conciously choose to allow this divine direction, He is faithful to provide it. God designed trees to change and grow once a year. He designed people to receive His prompting for change whenever we need it. Allow God to direct your growth and you will be ablaze for His Glory, rather than going down in flames under your own power.