There is a tree next to my house. I’m not sure what kind of tree it is, but each year I think it’s dead. It drops its leaves earlier than I would expect, branches fall out of it, etc. Each year I’m sure that it’s the end.

But, so far, each Spring it wakes up and explodes in almost pure white blossoms. For several days it is spectacularly beautiful, and it remains beautiful as it drops the white petals and the yard looks like it snowed in the night.

The tree doesn’t have a lot of leaves, and what it has are often covered in rusty spots that look like a disease. Each year I’m sure that it’s the end. But each year (so far!) it makes lots of small, hard red berries or fruits of some kind. The leaves fall, but many berries stay on the tree into winter, although they shrivel up and look like they forgot to fall.

At some point, the snows come. And then birds flock to the tree and eat the berries. They come in groups, sometimes robins, sometimes other kinds. Turns out that the berries didn’t forget to fall. They were just waiting.