Trees on the brain. That's my new malady. I've been thinking about trees all week. As we approach our first Sunday in the Season of Creation, we will be considering and honoring the forest. That could mean any creature in the forest... lush ferns, tiny, hopping frogs, freshly-fallen pine needles... But, what's the most prominent picture you see when you close your eyes and picture the word "forest?"
For me, it's the trees.
My sister-in-law, Jennifer, loves to re-connect with nature and God by visiting the Muir Woods in Northern California. For her, it's an all-senses experience with sounds: birds, babbling brooks, a quiet where "everything stops"; smells of pine and fresh air; sight- those magnificent redwood trees. "It's so majestic. You couldn’t possibly be any closer to God than when you're lost among in those trees. I feel like such a tiny, little spec next to something so huge and old and gorgeous."
What are your favorite trees? The avocado tree in mom's backyard? Palms trees in Hawaii? Share your memories with us!
For more on writing about trees, I turned to an expert- Joyce Kilmer: poet, journalist, father and man of faith. Some say his poems were too simple, but his most famous - TREES - surely speaks to what we are celebrating on Sunday.
TREES
by: Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)
I THINK that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
See you Sunday!
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