“Autumn, the year’s last, loveliest smile.”

— William Cullen Bryant

Autumn is smiling today, and so am I.  The wheel of the year has made another full turn; and once again I find myself caught up in the excitement of returning to the woods for some Fall magic.  For a few weeks each Fall, I have the best job in the world. As part of the local Pumpkin Patch, I walk down a tree-lined path to the center of the woods and wait for hay wagons to break down so that I can entertain the visiting children with a story and a rhyme or two.

What is just as magical for me is the time I spend there alone.  Away from all the distractions of my usual life, away from the noise of traffic and ringing phones, away from the ordinary routine that marks my days, I see the world in a completely different way.  I will venture alone into the woods today, I will open my eyes and ears to the beauty that so often is drowned out by the hubbub of life.  I will hear the whispering of the breeze as it touches the leaves at the tops of the trees.  I will hear the skittering of the forest creatures who live in my temporary home.  I will smell the rich aroma of the dark brown soil and keep my eyes open for the year’s treasures — mushrooms and lichens and moss and fungi, leaves and stones and bark and nuts.  I will see the sky through the outstretched arms of the towering trees, and I will feel very small as I stand seventy feet below and gaze toward the heavens, knowing that long after my time here is done, these constant trees will guard the woods I love so well.  I will enjoy the sense of balance that comes from entering a world where leaves feed soil and soil feeds trees, where the circles and cycles go on undisturbed, except by the fleeting presence of one small woman and some visiting children.  I will see the wise way that nature feeds all its creatures, without need of any intervention from the world beyond.

There is a timeless and deeply moving energy that calls me to the woods.  It is there that I hear the wisdom planted in my soul.  It is there that I hear the voice of the One who created me.