I spent a morning rooting around on the forest floor.
There was so much to see.
Colour,
pattern,
texture,
and LIFE.
The trees let go of their beautiful leaves,
their colour fades
and they begin to decompose
ready to become part of the soil to come.
I love how the roots of this tree appear to be gathering them up, not discarded but precious, knowing their value, thanking them for all the work they have done so far and for the nourishment they will bring to the soil.
And other things come for the ride too like all these spangle galls. A little wasp laid their eggs on the leaf high up in the tree back in the spring knowing it will eventually fall and the larvae will hatch on the forest floor the year after.
So many things overwintering in the rich leaf mulch.
And new life is already taking place. There were many acorns sending out their tap roots, searching out a good place to hunker down, the beginnings of the trees of the future.
Trees are not afraid to let go, to be naked and vulnerable, to go to rest for the winter. They know that new life will come again and that their shedding will eventually nourish the very ground in which they live.
We have a lot to learn from these marvelous beings.
