The trees were glowing on our recent hike through Lake Maria State Park, a 1500 acre park of rolling terrain, old-growth forests, small lakes, and woodland marshes.  Chris gathered a beautiful array of Bigtooth aspen leaves that carpeted the trail near the sunlit edges of the forest.  The huge, old maple trees that elevated this woods to forest status had turned a brilliant golden color and shimmered in the autumn sunlight, causing an ethereal glow of the shaded trail.

The immenseness of the trees was brought to ground and sight with those that had fallen.  They must have made earthquake rumbles and sharp cracks of breaking wood as they fell to the forest floor, crushing the young trees that grew along the axis of their path.  Some fallen giants still had leaves from this year’s growth; others were decayed and covered with moss.

We spotted a little acorn bandit, cheeks full of plunder, backed into an awkward frozen position of potential fight or flight.

Bjorkland Lake reflected the blue of the sky and bore a circular wreath of cattails and common reed grass.  It was quiet and empty of birds–perhaps they were hiding in the reed grass, but it seemed they were missing out on a glorious swimming day!

The quivering golden aspen leaves were singing the last refrains of their seasonal song, dropping note by note to the ground below.

Their audience of sumac, goldenrod, and gone-to-seed asters swayed with the song of the breeze, and for some reason, it reminded me of Christmas.

Neatly packed milkweed seeds lay exposed to the wind in a dried pod that had cracked open, while the fluffy stragglers from another pod clung to the rough casing.

A living arch invited us into the chapel of gilded maples, and we hushed as we walked the hallowed ground beneath their glory.

We drove to another area of the park, passing through a low wetland area where a yellow sign warned of ‘Rare Turtle Crossing.’  The Park is home to Blanding’s turtles, a threatened species in Minnesota.  I spotted a turtle on a log in the tree-reflected lake, but this sunbather was a common painted turtle.

A common painted turtle living in an extraordinary autumn-painted world.

So often we take our world for granted, and yet, every single day we walk on holy ground.  We want the hugeness and history of what came before us to stretch out in front of us for our children’s children.  We are small, common creatures living in an extraordinary domain.  In your tree of life, what song are you singing to the world?