Slowing Down

Notes on Seasons

Deciduous trees in fall

Giving ourselves the grace to slow way down when needed is an act of rebellion. I wonder if the greatest way to affect change might not just be to sink down and stop, to root and refuse to move for as long as it takes for the sap to flow again, for the vermilion fronds of new leaves to appear once again. The trees don’t offer life again until they’ve first frozen to stillness. And if perhaps a warm spell induces them to a winter bloom, it’s often catastrophic to the summer fruit yields. In spring, they offer us hope with budding leaves and flowers after the barrenness of winter. In summer, they offer us breath. In fall, as the sap retreats, they offer us breathtaking beauty brilliantly colored dancing leaves. In winter, their bones for our warmth. And, yet, the evergreens with their eternal color, have roots so shallow I can’t fathom how they stay alive. Maybe those shallow roots check the pulse of their world around. We humans aren’t evergreen. And, in a world where our value is in year-round labor extraction, how can we not be catastrophically stunted. Would we have greater yields in our lives if we honored the need to freeze? How might that look?

Thank you for reading!

With Love,

Amanda

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