Nature's Keys

If I am a maple key falling, at least I can twirl.

Annie Dillard, Pulitzer Prize-winning American author

My kindergarten teacher, Miss Broker, instilled in her students a fascination with nature. I remember a hike in King's Forest, for which Mom has different memories of kids piled into our station wagon and a stern Miss Broker in the passenger seat, and I remember calling the maple tree seed pods 'helicopters' and watching with excitement as they spun in circles to the ground. Isn't it amazing the memories and smiles that can be conjured up when glancing down at the ground and paying attention to something so simple as a maple key? Delight revisited.