Seeds of the Future

Seeds fo the Future

Washed by the morning sun, this year’s brilliant leaves, flaming orange before they fall, seem like loving hands holding the delicate seed pods, which will in turn hold tight to the branches through the storms of winter and become next year’s seedlings. “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.” (Ecclesiastes 1:4, King James version) Sometimes you can’t improve on the Shakespearean cadence of the King James, and I’ve always love the use of the word “abide”.

Autumn moves so quickly, and in these moments we see many goodbyes—birds migrating, animals beginning hibernation, leaves falling from trees, annual plants beginning their slow death—but the natural world knows that this is another turn of the cycle, and the earth will truly abide, already preparing for the return in spring.

All that inspired by a municipal sugar maple tree by the creek in Carnegie.

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