If there is a season to celebrate trees, surely, it is Autumn. Fall appears from around a bend when a sudden burst of color appears from the countless shades of green. When we catch that yellow, red or orange surprise—we are thrust into fall.
This season of gratitude and harvest is made for celebrating the splendor of all that has been gangly and wilting in the summer swelter. This year, Nashville experienced what is called a heat dome. It made us hotter than hades with thick air pressing in and down on us for a month.
Then yesterday fall came. I saw it on a walnut tree in the park like an oasis in a desert. The air was thinner and my mind was free to dance on cool clouds that hinted at rain.
If you can find the time, walk to the woods and fall in love with the miracle of a colorful tree after a long and hot summer. Not all the trees, just the one that reminds you that all seasons pass and today our job is to be grateful for this new season.
This year I want to celebrate the wild nature of the company we keep when we walk alone.
-- Becca Stevens
Published 9/29/26