09/25/2026
Wilde Thoughts 🍂
Not every season is for blooming. Some are for rooting. You’re allowed to do what the trees do. Let something go, invest the time and energy inward, and trust that it is okay to slow down with the seasons and nature.
When we look to nature, I see something we should learn from and apply to our lives. In each season there is a reason for everything.
Right now we are seeing the trees very slowly start to change. To the human eye it can look like the leaves and trees are dying. What is actually happening underneath the surface, beyond what our eyes can see, is a process that’s necessary for future growth.
It stops making chlorophyll. Sap slows. And at the base of every leaf, it builds something called an abscission layer, basically a wall that cuts the leaf off from water and nutrients. The tree lets it go on purpose. The energy once put into outward growth redirects underground into the roots, into reserves that will carry the tree through winter and fuel next spring’s growth.
Animals also shift into a new rhythm as seasons change. Squirrels and bears spend fall in hyperphagia, essentially over eating on purpose, to prepare their bodies for what is ahead. Deer redirect their energy into a different rhythm. Migrating birds and monarch butterflies read the shortening days as a signal to move, to conserve, to change course before scarcity forces them to.
We are so quick to treat our own slow seasons as failure. We push ourselves to do more, produce more, be more, all the time. As if resting means we’re not growing, as if doing less means less success. We glorify “busy busy” and “hustle and bustle.” Redirecting our energy inward, toward rest, toward roots, toward whatever this season is actually asking of us, is okay. You’re not lazy or less productive for slowing down. Let’s redirect that negative mentality. Instead, let’s see this season of stillness as a time of strengthening our roots and preparing for the next season of growth.
