A tree is a miracle.

You knew that, of course, but I repeat the oft-stated perception that trees are fabulous and inspiring.

In Autumn we get to see the spectacle of trees shedding the leaves they’ve been maintaining all summer long. They created the leaves out of stuff they pulled out of the earth. In this way a tree is lot smarter than you are. It knows the minerals and organic substances in its environment in a way that you never will, even if you pushed your face into the sod and tried to lick the earth.

It turns those minerals into a structure - trunk, limbs, bark . . . and leaves. It uses the leaves to harvest sunlight. The leaves turn sunlight into energy the same way your intestine turns an eggplant casserole into energy that gets used to support the activites of your soma. What the tree doesn’t use it stores in its roots. It always makes a profit. It uses some of the sun energy to do business and it stashes away the rest because it knows that winter is coming.

As winter approaches, the tree conducts a process of risk management. It knows that the big leaves that generate so much profitable energy during the summer become a significant liability in winter. There is still sunlight in the winter, but the risk-benefit equation is all wrong. Trees have learned that it’s just better not to try to do business with the sun during the winter months. It’s better to close up shop and live off of the surplus generated during the summer because the risks associated with too much weight on the limbs during winter is too great. Real structural damage is possible.

(Other trees have found a strategy for harvesting sunlight during the winter - the evergreens. Take a look at their leaves : thin, long or short needles. Even evergreens shed in autumn, though. You see a carpet of golden needles on the ground as they cut back on their liabilities when winter approaches.)

From our perspective, we see the leaves ‘turn’ - they change from green to red, gold, yellow, brown, and they fall to the ground. With a little breeze you can see the leaves leave their home and drift lightly to the earth. Uncountable numbers of leaves of all sizes fill the air, and fall. They cover the ground with mulch that rots and brings organic matter back to the soil, from which the tree again will create more leaves, maybe two or three years hence.

So, what is life like for the leaf ?

It wakes up one day and finds it has a shape that is unfurling. It feels the energy of the sun waking it up and it finds itself motivated to do what comes naturally : to use the sunlight to feed its growth to full size. To do so, it also draws upon the nourishment provided by the tree. But it finds that even at full size there is still a lot of energy left over, and the tree says, no problem, give it to me and I’ll store it. The tree has invested in this leaf, and now it’s time for the leaf to provide ROI. So for several months the leaf does what leaves do - it turns sunlight into useable energy and the tree stores the surplus energy in its roots. Until the day when the tree sends out a memo “to all leaves”. Due to overly dangerous circumstances we are shutting down our sunlight harvesting operation - you are no longer needed. See your local branch manager for details on time, date, etc., of discontinuation of nutrient flow.

Without nutrients from the tree, the leaf cannot sustain itself anymore - it dies. It loosens its grip on the tree and finally falls away. Lessons learned :

Leaves die because the tree has withdrawn nourishment.
Trees have a purpose separate and apart from their leaves.
Trees create leaves to serve their needs and they discard them without remorse when the time comes. Having created them they are within their rights to discard them. The leaf is not an individual in its own right but a part of the tree. (I can see certain interests using this as an analog for “job creation and job destruction”. Looking into that is another topic for another time.)
Leaves are ephemeral to trees as trees are ephemeral to geology.

There is, however, a more salient point : a tree is an intelligent system. Within the limitations of its situation a tree demonstrates a profound level of intelligence. Seeing the vast intelligence there should remind us that we ourselves possess an even greater magnitude of awareness without even considering “education”. We are born very, very smart.