Hal Borland

A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire in magnitude at least but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart.

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.

Time has its own dimensions and neither the sun nor the clock can encompass them all.

March is a tomboy with tousled hair, a mischievous smile, mud on her shoes and a laugh in her voice.

Summer ends, and Autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have high tide always and a full moon every night.

October is the fallen leaf, but it is also a wider horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hills once more in sight, and the enduring constellations above them once again.

The ultimate wisdom which deals with beginnings, remains locked in a seed. There it lies, the simplest fact of the universe and at the same time the one which calls faith rather than reason.

There it is fog atmospheric moisture still uncertain in destination not quite weather and not altogether mood yet partaking of both.

You can't be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or a squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet.

To know after absence the familiar street and road and village and house is to know again the satisfaction of home.

A snowdrift is a beautiful thing - if it doesn't lie across the path you have to shovel or block the road that leads to your destination.

April is a promise that May is bound to keep.

Man is wise and constantly in quest of more wisdom; but the ultimate wisdom, which deals with beginnings, remains locked in a seed. There it lies, the simplest fact of the universe and at the same time the one which calls forth faith rather than reason.

Knowing trees I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass I can appreciate persistence.

If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.

Summer is a promissory note signed in June, its long days spent and gone before you know it, and due to be repaid next January.

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.

Weekend planning is a prime time to apply the Deathbed Priority Test: On your deathbed, will you wish you'd spent more prime weekend hours grocery shopping or walking in the woods with your kids?

All walking is discovery. On foot we take the time to see things whole.

A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart.

The owl, that bird of onomatopoetic name, is a repetitious question wrapped in feathery insulation especially for Winter delivery.

Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.