Delighted for the Rest of Your Life

Fall color is a real gateway love. It is one of the first reasons many of us learn to love trees. Tree people and those who do not yet know they are tree people alike, wait for these sweater days when we are enveloped in color.

2020 Foot Path over the mound of clover, on the way to Field Temple across the street. Shagbark Hickory yellowing beyond the Red Maples.

2020 Foot Path over the mound of clover, on the way to Field Temple across the street. Shagbark Hickory yellowing beyond the Red Maples.





Trees in the fall are soulful fireworks. Unlike cheap, common fireworks they are a celebration that is universal, one that connects us to our true mother, nature. They touch us so deeply, first, because of their sheer magnitude. We are not talking cheap garish blasts in the sky here; we’re talking about whole forests filling latitudes with reds, oranges, yellows, and rusts as far as the eye can see. And we don’t just buy them when we want and blow them off when we want. There will be no obnoxious blasts that leave them screaming for another and another. We wait patiently, anxiously, expectantly through the year for them to arrive on their own time to unfold slowly across the landscape. These fireworks suspend time, and for a change we are asking time to slow down. We want fall to last long like memories.





Best of all, they flush into radiance in complete silence. It’s a miracle every time- soulful, not surface. They reach us so deeply and incomparably. They will never wake your baby or scare your dog. They do not intrude on everyone else’s night, or morning for that matter. Silence seems so underrated these days.

Paper Birches and Native Wildflowers in Treetroit 1 - a couple of boulders peeking through

Paper Birches and Native Wildflowers in Treetroit 1 - a couple of boulders peeking through





It’s also true that we can, but don’t have to, visit the forest to witness it. We bring the forest to our own gardens and front yards. We set these stages for the annual pageant. I added a few more scarlet Oaks and Sugar Maples near enough to the house to delight me all day.





Fall color is free, and we all have a front row seat. It’s the height of nature, accessible to all without really doing anything, unless we want to. In which case plant a tree, or a couple hundred, to heighten the effect. Bring some fall color to your garden, to your house, to your street. Pay it forward this fall and you will be delighted for the rest of your life.

Treetroit 1 - Red Maples planted last year, and the Spruces that used to flank the house that stood there once. Yellowing Honey Locusts on the street, planted in the 80’s perhaps.

Treetroit 1 - Red Maples planted last year, and the Spruces that used to flank the house that stood there once. Yellowing Honey Locusts on the street, planted in the 80’s perhaps.

Birch