Giving Trees

 This morning, as I gaze out at the woods bordering my home, I see branches full of fresh new leaves just beginning to open and I meditate for a moment on the beauty and wonder of a tree. Each one is a unique expression of the Creator-maple, elm, oak, flowering pear, crabapple, magnolia.  Each one provides gifts to the earth according to its nature: beautiful blossoms, fruit, nuts, shade, shelter for animals and oxygen.
Trees absorb odors and pollutant gases, filtering particulates out of the air by trapping them on their leaves and bark. In one year an acre of mature trees can provide enough oxygen for 18 people. This Monday in April, sandwiched between Earth Day on the 22nd and Arbor Day on the 30th, I am choosing to honor those trees that have been my friends throughout life.

As a young child, I fell in love with the pear tree that grew in the courtyard garden of our home.  On warm spring nights, after I had been sent to bed, I would watch out my window as its beautiful white blossoms shone in the sunset's glow and seemed to dance in the breeze.

 On the weekends, I had a very dear tree friend at our summer cabin, where my father built me a tree-house that I used to sit in for hours and read, sheltered under its comforting branches.  As I grew older and we moved to a new home that bordered an abandoned golf course, I would often walk there to sit under a willow tree on the edge of a pond and meditate.  The willow seemed to have a very gentle spirit that understood the pains of growing up and offered peaceful, tranquil solace.

There is a children's book called The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein that celebrates the lifelong friendship of a boy and an apple tree. It begins: "Once there was a tree and she loved a little boy...“And every day the boy would come and he would gather her leaves and play king of the forest”....“He would climb up her trunk and swing from her branches and eat apples”...“And the boy loved the tree . . . very much. And the tree was happy.”  As the boy grows older and loses interest in playing, the tree gives him her branches to build a boat and then a house.  Finally, when he is old and there is little left of the tree but a stump, the boy wearily sits down on the trunk and together, they rest peacefully.

On this April morning, I ask whoever reads this post, to reflect on the trees that have touched your life. Go outside into the sunshine, sit under a tree and feel its gentle spirit; thank our Creator for every gift of life, but especially the giving trees.

Gardening Lessons

Gardening is one of my favorite pastimes. I can get lost for hours in the garden, and find that when I emerge, my spirits are revived and I am filled with peace. The soil has soaked up my tears, the flowers have heard my most heart-felt prayers and each living thing, including the birds, has offered its gentle comfort when I've needed a friend and couldn't quite find the words.  During painful periods of my life, I have planted flowers to transform ugliness into beauty. Through the years, I have found that the garden has lessons to teach us about every aspect of life.

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Here are some things my garden has taught me:

•  Pruning: which snips off areas that have died and encourages new growth. It is important to use our discernment to determine the correct timing for each plant: roses in the spring, lilacs after blooming, hydrangeas in early summer after the new buds have established themselves.  In our own lives, sometimes we need to "prune" those things that no longer serve us to allow more energy for what really matters. Discernment and timing are key, so it's important to be continually "tuning in" to our spiritual needs through prayer and meditation.
• Soil amendments: our garden soil can become depleted after a season of growth, so it's important to add compost, mulch and fertilizer to make sure that plants have proper nourishment.  Similarly, it is important for us to nourish ourselves with healthy food and uplifting spiritual messages.
• Water:  is of course, essential to all of life, especially plants and people.  The garden needs rain in the spring and watering in the summer to stay healthy. We need to make sure we're properly hydrated with plenty of pure water (use a Pur filter!) for our bodies and the spiritual water of the Spirit for our souls.
• Sunshine: flowers open up and reach for the sun.  Beautiful green growing things need its light to make chlorophyll.  Humans need some sunscreen-free sun each day to make Vitamin D and to revive our spirits, just as we need the Light of God's Spirit to guide and strengthen us.
• Dormancy: plants need periods of dormancy when conditions are not ideal for growth, to conserve energy and adapt to changes.  So too, we sometimes find ourselves in a waiting period, when we need to slow down, be quiet for awhile and rest in order to adapt to change.
• Growth: given ideal conditions and tender loving care, the garden will surely thrive, as we will if we practice self-care and lean on our Master Gardener to provide for our needs.

 “And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett

Positivity

Positive thinking has always been a challenge for me, especially when I'm going through a difficult time. I tend to want to act like a turtle and retreat to my shell to be sad for awhile, which I suppose has its value as well.  But once I'm done indulging in some momentary self-pity, I realize that facing hardships squarely with positivity is surely the key to rising above the challenges of life.

My mother, who passed away six years ago, was a big fan of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, a minister, author and speaker who wrote The Power of Positive Thinking. This book was, I think, my mother's guidebook for surviving adversity in her life, and once she had overcome something (death of a child, cancer, financial challenges), she became a source of strength for others.  I miss her everyday.

So today, to honor my mother, I will share some of Dr. Peale's insights in this space:

•  A positive thinker does not refuse to recognize the negative; he refuses to dwell on it. Positive thinking is a form of thought which habitually looks for the best results from the worst conditions 
• Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. Make all your friends feel there is something special in them. Look at the sunny side of everything. Think only the best, be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give everyone a smile. Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. Be too big for worry and too noble for anger. 
•  The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.   
• If you want things to be different, perhaps the answer is to become different yourself.
• Remember, there is no situation so completely hopeless that something constructive cannot be done about it. When faced with a minus, ask yourself what you can do to make it a plus. A person practicing this attitude will extract undreamed-of outcomes from the most unpromising situations. Realize that there are no hopeless situations; there are only people who take hopeless attitudes
• Faith is the one power against which fear cannot stand. Day by day, as you fill your mind with faith, there will ultimately be no more room left for fear. This is the one great fact that no one should forget. Master faith and you will automatically master fear.   

  Change your thoughts and you change your world.

-Norman Vincent Peale

As I read these over, I realize that my Mom really did exemplify these qualities in her life.  She tended towards pessimism, but always fought that tendency and made a special effort to be cheerful and positive. She overcame much and left this earth with many dear friends mourning the loss of her kind, strong spirit.  She was the gravitational force holding our family together and we will never really stop grieving or be able to fill the hole left by her death.  But I can remember what she taught me about life and in that sense she continues to live here on earth, as her spirit surely does in Heaven.

 For today, I will focus on these lessons of positivity, moving out of my turtle shell and following my mom's example.  I may even re-read that book!

 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy
-think about such things.    Philippians 4:8

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New Pathways

 Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays.  The themes of rebirth and resurrection are so easily demonstrated throughout nature as it wakes up from its winter hibernation.  Yesterday was a glorious spring day, and as I cleared some dead brown stalks in my garden -- revealing fresh, green growth -- I thought about the cycles of change and growth we all go through and the new pathways we must create if we are to adapt.

Old traditions die and new ones take their place.  What is familiar, like those dead brown stalks, has to sometimes be cleared away as we allow ourselves to let go of expectations about the way things "should" be and embrace change.

When our children were young, Easter was a flurry of excitement.  There was the early morning search for hidden baskets filled with goodies, an egg hunt, a big breakfast and then everyone dressed in Easter finery for a beautiful church service. In the afternoon, we drove to Buffalo for multiple family visits, each one filled with plenty of hugs, food and baskets of treats. It was exhausting but fun.

Now, both sets of parents have passed, our children are grown, one grandchild is traveling, the other lives far away, and church is virtual because of the pandemic. Needless to say, our Easter was very quiet. We attended church virtually, went to our daughter's place for brunch and then came home for a peaceful afternoon.  I missed my mom as I always do on holidays and shed a few tears, I must admit, but after praying, realized that new traditions and new pathways are what life is all about. 

We can cherish our memories, but then we have to set them down and move on, returning to them from time to time, but realizing that springtime and Easter have much to teach us about how to live. Life is a process of continuous renewal: the cycles of death, change and rebirth are the lessons of nature that are revealed in the springtime and that we must accept and learn from if we are to grow.

This morning, take a deep breath, let go of the old, embrace the change and create a new pathway...