| The Lesson of the Tree As the sun shines brightly on the ground
It wakes the acorn, sleeping sound.
The baby stirs to stretch and yawn,
Then journeys upwardyoung and strong.
It pushes hard with labored toil
And finally bursts through surface soil
To sprout and breathe the air anew
And bathe its buds in Spring-time dew! The rains pour down and winds blow high.
The new tree drinks and eats and thrives!
With Summer sun and moonlit glow,
The youthful oak begins to grow.
The roots dig deep. The trunk grows high.
Its branches shoot up to the sky
To offer coverage with its leaves. The Autumn chill comes fresh and crisp.
The leaves change color in its midst.
Gold and red and orange and brown
As winds blow cool, they tumble down
And dancing on the Earth with ease.
They leave the branches of the tree
To bare them of all mystery! The acorns fall onto the ground
Then Winter's icy snows abound.
The tree grows tired and sighs within
It's time for sleeping once again!
And even though the tree seems dead,
It's much alive and quite well fed.
It's only resting up for Spring
And the sprouting that the Sun will bring! Such is life's majestic dance:
As the tree, we live by chance.
We're born and live, we grow and sleep
Our roots into the ground dig deep,
Our branches stretch into the sky
As toward the higher self we fly;
For from the tree we've come to know
Life aboveand Life below! Dorothy Morrison | 
