A recent trip to Saratoga Springs was a dive into bright foliage, all orange and gold and red. The falling leaves and bare branches provoked reflection. What lasts? What fades and dies? Where do we humans fit in the cycles of creation? What can I learn from a tree?
As a young Language Arts teacher, I assigned students to choose a tree to observe for the school year. I told them to watch closely. Each week they and I then wrote a few words about what we saw. Some weeks we wrote about the tree. Any changes? Any growth? Some weeks we wrote about ourselves. Any changes? Any growth?
Autumn 2026 invites me to attend to the growing, changing world around me. Nature is a dear companion as we humans grow and change. I love to read this 1928 Robert Frost poem that may speak to you, too, about change and growth.
Tree at My Window
Tree at my window, window tree,
My sash is lowered when night comes on;
But let there never be curtain drawn
Between you and me.
Vague dream head lifted out of the ground,
And thing next most diffuse to cloud,
Not all your light tongues talking aloud
Could be profound.
But tree, I have seen you taken and tossed,
And if you have seen me when I slept,
You have seen me when I was taken and swept
And all but lost.
That day she put our heads together,
Fate had her imagination about her,
Your head so much concerned with outer,
Mine with inner, weather.
Appreciating autumn leaves,
Susan Schantz SSJ
