Sabbath Morning

Tags

growth, jeremiah, psalm 1, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trees

There are lots of familiar images in the readings for today. In reading both the text from Jeremiah and the psalm it’s easy for me to see a tree planted near water “stretching out its roots to the stream” (JER) and “yielding its fruit in due season” (Psalm 1) because a river runs through the back of our property and we are blessed with many trees that will be leafing out within a couple of months. There are some spring days when we worry about the river overflowing its banks but rushing water or damage to the trees is rare. It is miraculous to me to walk around in the spring and observe the growth that has taken place – without any fanfare, silently and imperceptibly over the winter.

Both Jeremiah and the psalmist are comparing us to these trees. Of course there are broken branches in some cases – usually from winter wind – but mostly we can count on the strength of the roots and the trunks of the trees to persevere and grow. It gives me hope to consider this comparison, especially when I am not feeling very effective or prolific in projects or when the strictures of winter seem too harsh. All I need to do is look up from my typing and see the tree outside my window standing tall and silent against the morning sky. Two bluejays have just landed in its branches without any assistance from the tree itself.

So it is with my life (and yours). A readiness to offer space for another is enough as we wait for a later recognition of the growth that manifests even just because of the waiting.

The Restless Wind

Tags

Earth, fileds, hearts, home, mother nature, Native Americans, natural world, oneness, relatives, rivers, Sister Wind, skies, St. Francis of Assisi, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trees, weather, wind

As light comes outside my window this morning I wake up to the fact that what sounded like a truck or a train passing by (no tracks here though…) was the wind. It’s as if the tree in my sight line is keening after a tragedy – as well she might, given the destruction yesterday in the Midwestern states where winds reached 165 mph, leaving whole towns in a shambles. When we used to say that “March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb,” we never dreamed of that kind of extreme force. It was just a way to characterize the vicissitudes of mother nature trying to birth the season of spring. It seems that by now, with all the talk about climate change and the advances in science, we would be shouldering more responsibility toward “Sister Wind,” as St. Francis used to call her.

I am not a scientist, by any stretch of the imagination, but this morning I cannot ignore what is right before my eyes. I do not understand why we in the Northeast are so lucky as to be virtually unscathed by the weather events that have been happening in different parts of our country over the past year or two. I’m sitting here watching our tree struggle as the refrain of a 1960’s song plays in my mind: The wayward wind is a restless wind, a restless wind that yearns to wander, and he was born the next-of-kin…the next-of-kin to the wayward wind.

Call me silly, but what if we were to consider all of the natural world as our relatives – as St. Francis and the Native Americans always did? Would we perhaps take better care of our trees and rivers and fields and skies? Would we heed the environmentalists a bit more seriously and be more gentle on our walk through this world? It seems to me that all of this follows from my reflections of yesterday about the necessity of recognizing that even now we can open our hearts a bit wider to the possibility of the oneness of all that exists, thereby taking a bit more responsibility for our actions toward Earth, our home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have Hope

Tags

Emily Dickinson, hope, jeremiah, psalm 1, roots, Spring Equinox, St. Teresa of Avila, stream, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trees

Image and analogy generally help me to get my head or heart around a concept. Both today’s first reading from Jeremiah and the psalm compare those who hope in the Lord to trees planted near water. In Jeremiah 17 we hear that the one who trusts in the Lord is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green. In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit. Psalm 1 is similar but says that this “tree” yields its fruit in due season and says of the hopeful person: Whatever he does, prospers. Emily Dickinson weighs in on hope with a little poem that often comes to my mind and lifts my spirits. It begins: Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.

When I’m feeling less than hopeful, these images help me to remember, with St. Teresa of Avila, that all things are passing; God never changes. Today seems a good day to reflect on the little things that call us to remember hope. Oh yes, and today just happens to be the Spring Equinox!