The month has been hot and humid. The best time to walk and think during the heat is very early in the morning. The sun has been up for several hours and the air is thick and heavy. Everything is still. The cooler shade of the woods is the only place to escape the heat. It is quiet in the woods, with the fresh, musky smell of damp earth.

Everything is green this time of year, particularly the forest floor. Rays of light filter through the dense canopy high above my head and dance across the dark violet path through the woods. To either side, the dead leaves of previous autumns give way to the green tangle of ground cover that springs up from the fertile earth. A brilliant patch of green moss covers a fallen tree that rests to the side of the path. The open space where it once stood makes way for the young saplings that are nourished by the decaying wood. As in all things, each generation prepares and provides for the next one to come behind.