A tree planted for shade is a decision made on behalf of future afternoons.

Some decisions pay out to people you will not be there to see. Planting for shade means accepting that the benefit belongs to a summer beyond the one you are in, and possibly to someone else. Almost everything worth having was set up that way by somebody earlier. Most of the shade you sit in was arranged by strangers.

Choose one thing this season whose benefit arrives too late to be yours. Write down what you learned so the next person does not start blank, set something up properly, plant the slow thing. It will not feel like much at the time, and that is the nature of it.