4,777.4 Miles Total
In September 2023, I bought an e-bike, and I named her Zelda Zoomie. Since that time, I’ve been biking to every street in Ann Arbor in alphabetical order. I just finished the H streets. Every time I complete a letter, I write a reflection on place.
I began biking Ann Arbor’s H streets on July 8, when I pedaled to Haisley Drive. I completed this list of streets this evening, November 11, after making my way to Hutchins Avenue. When I began this part of my journey, the leaves on the trees were green and full. And I had my own energy as well; I live for Michigan’s summer months.
Since that time, I’ve been able to witness the life cycle of this season’s leaves. Before they become untethered and drift to the ground, they do something gorgeous. They stop producing. As the days grow shorter, their photosynthesis slows and eventually stops. We humans tend to think we might rot and lose our value if we stop producing. Of course, that is never true, and we would do well to learn a lesson from the trees.
In that final stage, the green chlorophyll breaks down, and in its place, other colors are revealed. The leaves don’t simply change color. In many cases, the yellow and orange pigments were there all along, hidden beneath the green.
Could we surprise ourselves by finding intrinsic value in ourselves? Or one another? Could we marvel at that beauty — revealed, not for what we do, but simply for who we are?
Now many — probably most — of the leaves have fallen. But I still wheel around a corner and find myself stunned by these revelations of color. They can still be discovered.
And now, I like to think about the energy of those trees, no longer being produced in the leaves, making its way into the roots. This is probably less scientific and more imaginative. But there’s something stunning about knowing that trees can store energy in their root systems — and that, through their connections, resources can be shared.
We can wait for that stored energy to support a new season of leaves, but for now, it simply is — at the base, under the ground, in the connections.
Sustenance in the producing. Worth in the revealing. Energy in the grounding. Maybe that could be true for us, too.
—Renee Roederer
