Joyce Kilmer once wrote about trees..."I've never seen a poem as lovely as a tree."  Autumn, which is fast approaching, is getting my attention.  The multitude of color starts subtly with the dogwoods roaming into the shades of maroon and purple and their berries bright red.  The elm and maple stand ready to soon shout at me with their reds, yellows and oranges.

Besides their colors, trees have often taught me lessons of kindness and inclusiveness.  I was raised to be exclusive, judgmental and critical by an upper-class, white mother who truly believed that her children were better than 'those' children. Unknowingly, I became prejudice in my thinking of other races, ethnic groups, and anyone that didn't look like me. Today I realize how much I missed in knowing other children that were different and therefore unique.

Finally, as an adult, the trees taught me to open my heart to all...to the dark skinned, foreign speaking, or the old and infirmed and the weak and the lost.  As I gazed at a forest, I began to notice something.  The Universe had created many, many different kinds of trees in that forest.  And, somehow, they were all growing...and growing next to each other.  Each tree found a way to grow, to mature and become the best tree they could...in the company of other different, taller, shorter, leafier trees. Wow! I pondered that truth.  Knowing that much of our creation is a mirror of a deeper spiritual truth, it hit me. People, too, are made to accept, grow together, and get along!!  I wasn't any more worthy, or better than anyone else.  I needed the differences and diversity in my life. My mother's belief was in error.

Since then, the forests and trees continue to remind me of the differences in others that I can embrace and learn from.  I've planted all sorts of trees around the yard and pasture.  They gently remind me of the Universe's ultimate theme....we are all one!