Leave

In spring, deciduous trees grow fresh foliage to welcome the growing day. In summer, photosynthesis goes on full blast, each chloroplast hungry for for more sunlight to produce more sugars. By fall, things have slowed down, so much that colors change and these trees lose their leaves, becoming skeletal. And in winter, they don't need so much energy for the upkeep of their canopies because there is none.

One leaf hung on stubbornly throughout the fall and winter. Anybody who passed it by after a hard blizzard would wonder why there was a leaf that has not fallen so late into the holiday season, but nobody noticed. Then, just as the next equinox rolled around, someone plucked it off the tree!

That's it! I'm sure there's a lesson in here somewhere, although fact being that I just made this all up kinda holds back the punch a bit, hmzzzt!