The wonder experienced at the splendorous Autumn colors results in a comparison of the yearly cycle to the cycle of human life. There, in the quiet and awesome beauty of the forest, a person can take time to pause and to re-examine life's successes or failures.

Time may be spent comparing the scars of a lifetime with the still-standing once-regal evergreen fatally struck by lightning during the past summer storms. The starkness of death dramatizes the living colors of the leaves preparing to fulfill their task of falling to earth to provide protection for the mother tree from the harshness of the winter freezes.

Thousands of photographs taken yearly confirm the often repeated legend of the Aspens. The closeness of the clumps of Aspens formed by the return of two lovers who were separated during their human life is poignantly portrayed. Happily, the reunited lovers remain together, and the young trees resulting from this reunion cluster in close family unity to the older trees. As years pass, the closely knit, continuously growing family begins to symbolize triumph, as their closeness chokes out all other growth in the area. No longer do the lovers suffer, as Aspens, they reign supreme.

Autumn is the fulfillment of the beginnings made in Spring and the fruition of the promises of Summer. It is also the time of preparation for the "resting" of the Winter, when, once again, the forest completes the natural earth cycle.

Life's autumn can be the time when the human dissatisfactions and fears of failure are recognized as mere manifestations of concerns as one prepares for the "resting" of the winter. Autumn can and should be the time of the display of the colors of the life's successes. However, sometimes, just as the lightning-struck tree, one's greatest success may be to dramatize the outstanding successes of others.

Presidential Award 1995-National Authors Registry