Andrea Borsvold: Things I’m letting go of this fall

There are many lessons we can learn from trees. I recently walked around our yard with Google lens and discovered the names of some of the types of trees we have, realizing that most of our trees are quaking aspen, along with a few paper birch, crab apple and of course the oaks and cottonwoods I grew up around, so I knew those well. Something I learned about the aspen trees is that they do not reproduce by dropping seeds, but instead spread their vast root system and push up a new tree not far from the parent. No wonder the seedlings (if they re still even called that) are so strong and can reach 10 feet or taller in only a year s time — they are still attached to the parent tree, albeit underground. Here lies the first lesson we can learn from trees — remember your roots. Sometimes we want to venture out, explore the world (literally or figuratively), but we would honestly do best to stay connected with those who raised us to be strong individuals, giving support to us, ev