Last Friday, as I walked outside first thing on the crisp autumn morning, I stopped to look around and take in my surroundings. For our family's trees creating an overhead canopy, it is quickly approaching peak color change season for the leaves.
With all the internal challenges we create and experience whenever we are facing change, in contrast, nature doesn't seem fazed by the prospect of change in the least.
It appears nature continues to do what it is supposed to do. As the reduction of sunlight and temperature begins, the creation of chlorophyll wanes. As the level of chlorophyll breaks down, the color of the leaves change, and the cycle of preparing for winter and upcoming dormancy begins.
Trees in nature have learned via evolution that it becomes critical to reduce metabolism, growth, and energy consumption to survive a harsh winter. Can you imagine a tree deciding that it was going to ignore the lessons learned from evolution, and not change? I cannot.
What struck me this morning was that individual forms of life in nature routinely choose preparation and the tactics needed for self-preservation, reinvention, and growth year after year. Do we?
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Doug Brown
Chairman & CEO
Paradigm Associates LLC
Cranford, NJ
dbrown@... (908) 276-4547
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