Change of Season: Falling for the Woods

Saint Mother Theodore Guerin once wrote, “… nature unfolds in our forests and along our rivers in so grand and marvelous a manner that describing even with the greatest simplicity seems an exaggeration to those who, not having seen it, cannot form an idea of its splendor.”

She wasn’t kidding.

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods is home to a wide variety of trees, some native, some from as far away as Asia. Together they form a strange orchestra, each one playing a note in its own musical scale. In autumn, they crescendo.

Seeing Things for the First Time

I had never truly experienced autumn before I came to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods for the first time at age 18. Oh sure, growing up in Southern California, I understood what Fall was supposed to look like. But my imagination paled when faced with Saint Mother Theodore’s woods.
The colors took my breath away. Ruby, rust, crimson, chocolate, burnt umber, gold, canary, pumpkin, copper, tangerine. Leaves speckled, freckled, blotched and spotted. And the shapes! The smell! I ran from tree to tree seeking the perfect specimen to mail home to my parents, little thinking that autumn leaves rarely survive a trip through the postal service in an envelope.

My Spiritual Home

I knew Saint Mary-of-the-Woods would be forever my spiritual home from the first time I stepped onto the grounds. But in autumn … oh, in autumn, I grew my own roots. No matter how far away I go, part of me belongs in Saint Mother Theodore’s beloved woods.

When’s the last time you saw a Woods autumn? Maybe it’s time for you to fall again for one of the most beautiful and sacred places on earth.

“As to our garden and yard, we have all the woods. And the wilderness is our only cloister, for our house is like an oak tree planted therein.” – Saint Mother Theodore Guerin