Everyone, everywhere we go, is talking about the color this year. The foliage is more vibrant and beautiful than any recent year I can remember. It makes every mundane walk outside to do one chore or another a full-color experience. And all the drives - to school and back and and everywhere else we go - full of so much beauty it's impossible to look away from. I find myself standing under our giant old maple tree often, looking up as though I could absorb all that color and take it in for the colder, darker days ahead. In a way, that's exactly what's happening.
When I Am Among the Trees
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 (From her collection Thirst)
