A Conversation with the Trees 🍂

Weekend Musings from Ashton

Author

Ashton Gustafson
November 01, 2025

Hey friends —

Every autumn, I find myself drawn back to the same conversation. The one that happens when the air thins, the light softens, and the trees begin their slow and sacred dance.

It’s a dialogue I’ve come to call A Conversation with the Trees.

A few years back on the Good / True / & Beautiful podcast, I went unplugged — no guests, no script — just me, the microphone, and what I can only describe as a real-time processing of what autumn seems to be whispering.

I read a poem, explore panentheism and the liminal space, and wrestle with what it means to surrender to change rather than resist it.

The trees always seem to get this right.

Thomas Merton once wrote:

“We love the beauty of the leaves changing colors, demonstrating once again their will to live through another season. Fall’s color change is a declaration; it’s an invitation to step into something new. When I think of the leaves, I think of their lack of resistance to the process of autumn, the process of change. They don’t run or hide or protest the changing of the seasons, but stand tall and strong and let their beauty show no matter the time of year. I want to learn how to do that.”

That’s what this episode is about — learning to do that.

Learning to let go without fear.
To see change as invitation.
To let beauty have its way in us, too.

If you need a pause this weekend, a reminder that renewal often hides inside surrender — I’d love for you to join me for this one.

With gratitude and falling leaves,
Ashton

PS - I released Vol. 9 of The Citizen this last week. You can get it here!