Here it is May, when high school seniors are being asked a dozen times a day where they are going to college. Someone told me that her daughter was closing in on a decision. "She says she’s looking for the right tree," the mother said, "and when she sees it, she will know." How do we know these things? What points the way?
This is beautiful!! I have never seen a marker tree but I will be looking for one. I had never heard of “thin places” until reading one of your books and that has honestly been one of the most beautiful discoveries later in life. 😌
This was wonderful and hits very close to home. In 1976, when my dear sister was about to leave to begin her post-high school education with the first class of women at the U.S. Air Force Academy, we went for a walk a day or so before she got on her plane from Tallahassee, Florida. On our walk, we visited what she always called "the Indian tree," which was situated on a piece of neighboring land rather untouched at that time. We put a "lucky penny" that was probably 20-30 years old in a knothole of that tree. The tree was bent - and nowhere near the size you describe as a trail or pointer tree - but that's what she called it. We had taken many walks as kids when camping out during a full moon there, and it was on the way to a path that might have been very old, down a sloping hill with massive live oaks on either side. Near the bottom of that hill was a spring head, feeding into shoals that flowed along a low spot into the wetland we crossed daily to get to school via a hardpan clay road. I still live in this area, and she has moved to North Carolina. That piece of land has, of course, been developed, but in a more mindful way than most of Florida. I use the road that cuts through there now, and look toward the hill where the bent tree with that penny might be now. There are office parks and apartments now, so I doubt it, but I still wonder. I think of that time in life and feel deeply for the departing grown children and their parents making these choices. Thank you so much for your story today!
I love this post--I recently came across this quote "Be still, my heart, these great trees are prayers." By Rabindranath Tagore. Yes! The trees speak... Are we paying attention?
"Is this where I belong?" such a tender question that all of us ask. We ask this not only in coming to a new place (like a church community), but we ask this in the presence of one another - Can I belong with you? In this moment we can choose to be a marker tree for light and love for the other.
Remarkable. God is a ventriloquist, able to communicate through promising rainbows, burning bushes, bright stars, fiery serpents, pillars of cloud, ravens with bread in their beaks, thunderclaps, and even a stubborn donkey with a gift for seeing angels. Where is the fine print that says the possibilities stop there? Or to put it another way, who is the person who will tell God to stop? ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
The giant redwoods in Marin County, California, called Muir Woods, has a section called Cathedral Pines. A sign asks for respectful silence. When John Muir (founder of the Sierra Club) first saw the giant redwoods, Muir (whose father was a pastor) said “this is the first time I have been to church in a long time.” John Muir was turned off to church, but turned on to the church in the woods. I also got a great sermon out of that experience that I delivered back home on Long Island, NY. Peace, Rev. Dwight Lee Wolter.
I’m reminded of a tree that is still growing in the front yard of the elementary school where I taught for 40 years. Every morning children could be seen sitting on its horizontal trunk, some with sights set on climbing up the vertical part.😉 One day the children were informed that for safety reasons, the tree would have to be cut down. First, they reacted with genuine sadness that was soon transformed into a collective mindset to save the tree, which they named “Ivy”. So they approached our school’s “Mother Earth” teacher with their concerns, and she agreed to help their voices reach those who wanted it cut down. The kids wrote letters, hung up signs to SAVE IVY, and appeared at a board meeting to plead their case. It was decided that an arborist be consulted, who deemed the tree to be stable. A compromise was agreed upon that included an enclosure around the tree with a warning sign not to climb it. After reading Barbara’s essay, I wonder if the affection and empathy the children had for this tree was due to their heightened awareness of its life force within that wasn’t felt by the adults in the yard. 💕
I am a parent of an only child. She graduated from High School in 2007. She applied to three Colleges and chose one of those.
After spending a large chunk of her life growing up in Eastern Kansas, all three schools were in the Eastern U.S. The one she chose turned out to be a good choice. I suspect that there were several signs that drew her in. I think she would say going to School in Annapolis, MD with its harbor and Rivers were the big draw. She graduated from St. John's College in 2011. She continues many friendships with folks she met there!
I love the idea of marker trees, and of seeking wisdom in all its sources. Panentheism is my homeland these days as I keep listening. In my sixties, I am learning I have missed a lot and now I'm trying to catch up.
Just beautiful. I love those walks in the woods. I tend to make up stories as I go along, but I too look for markers, those I make in my own head as I look straight up at this wonder of nature, all it's years, mosses and ferns. I want to touch it all and that makes me very happy. Thank you for this dose of happy with a nice fold of God's beauty added in. The college stories gave me a chuckle, I was unceremoniously told by my Dad after high school graduation to pick a school and pack up!
My only child graduated in 2008. We drove to colleges on Staten Island and in Houston from our home in North Iowa. He chose a college 1 1/2 hours from home, and we are forever grateful. It gave him lifelong friendships. Roots and wings. Since graduating, he has lived in Guinea, West Africa; Paris (3 times and currently) and Taiwan. Amazing the markers, and where life leads us all.
“God is a ventriloquist…”
This is beautiful!! I have never seen a marker tree but I will be looking for one. I had never heard of “thin places” until reading one of your books and that has honestly been one of the most beautiful discoveries later in life. 😌
This was wonderful and hits very close to home. In 1976, when my dear sister was about to leave to begin her post-high school education with the first class of women at the U.S. Air Force Academy, we went for a walk a day or so before she got on her plane from Tallahassee, Florida. On our walk, we visited what she always called "the Indian tree," which was situated on a piece of neighboring land rather untouched at that time. We put a "lucky penny" that was probably 20-30 years old in a knothole of that tree. The tree was bent - and nowhere near the size you describe as a trail or pointer tree - but that's what she called it. We had taken many walks as kids when camping out during a full moon there, and it was on the way to a path that might have been very old, down a sloping hill with massive live oaks on either side. Near the bottom of that hill was a spring head, feeding into shoals that flowed along a low spot into the wetland we crossed daily to get to school via a hardpan clay road. I still live in this area, and she has moved to North Carolina. That piece of land has, of course, been developed, but in a more mindful way than most of Florida. I use the road that cuts through there now, and look toward the hill where the bent tree with that penny might be now. There are office parks and apartments now, so I doubt it, but I still wonder. I think of that time in life and feel deeply for the departing grown children and their parents making these choices. Thank you so much for your story today!
Such wonderful, magical and fond memories Sis! Thank you. ❤️🍃Love you!
I love this post--I recently came across this quote "Be still, my heart, these great trees are prayers." By Rabindranath Tagore. Yes! The trees speak... Are we paying attention?
Yes
"Is this where I belong?" such a tender question that all of us ask. We ask this not only in coming to a new place (like a church community), but we ask this in the presence of one another - Can I belong with you? In this moment we can choose to be a marker tree for light and love for the other.
Read. Re-read. Read again. An infusion of hope every time. Thank you.
Remarkable. God is a ventriloquist, able to communicate through promising rainbows, burning bushes, bright stars, fiery serpents, pillars of cloud, ravens with bread in their beaks, thunderclaps, and even a stubborn donkey with a gift for seeing angels. Where is the fine print that says the possibilities stop there? Or to put it another way, who is the person who will tell God to stop? ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
The giant redwoods in Marin County, California, called Muir Woods, has a section called Cathedral Pines. A sign asks for respectful silence. When John Muir (founder of the Sierra Club) first saw the giant redwoods, Muir (whose father was a pastor) said “this is the first time I have been to church in a long time.” John Muir was turned off to church, but turned on to the church in the woods. I also got a great sermon out of that experience that I delivered back home on Long Island, NY. Peace, Rev. Dwight Lee Wolter.
I’m reminded of a tree that is still growing in the front yard of the elementary school where I taught for 40 years. Every morning children could be seen sitting on its horizontal trunk, some with sights set on climbing up the vertical part.😉 One day the children were informed that for safety reasons, the tree would have to be cut down. First, they reacted with genuine sadness that was soon transformed into a collective mindset to save the tree, which they named “Ivy”. So they approached our school’s “Mother Earth” teacher with their concerns, and she agreed to help their voices reach those who wanted it cut down. The kids wrote letters, hung up signs to SAVE IVY, and appeared at a board meeting to plead their case. It was decided that an arborist be consulted, who deemed the tree to be stable. A compromise was agreed upon that included an enclosure around the tree with a warning sign not to climb it. After reading Barbara’s essay, I wonder if the affection and empathy the children had for this tree was due to their heightened awareness of its life force within that wasn’t felt by the adults in the yard. 💕
I am a parent of an only child. She graduated from High School in 2007. She applied to three Colleges and chose one of those.
After spending a large chunk of her life growing up in Eastern Kansas, all three schools were in the Eastern U.S. The one she chose turned out to be a good choice. I suspect that there were several signs that drew her in. I think she would say going to School in Annapolis, MD with its harbor and Rivers were the big draw. She graduated from St. John's College in 2011. She continues many friendships with folks she met there!
I love the idea of marker trees, and of seeking wisdom in all its sources. Panentheism is my homeland these days as I keep listening. In my sixties, I am learning I have missed a lot and now I'm trying to catch up.
Just beautiful. I love those walks in the woods. I tend to make up stories as I go along, but I too look for markers, those I make in my own head as I look straight up at this wonder of nature, all it's years, mosses and ferns. I want to touch it all and that makes me very happy. Thank you for this dose of happy with a nice fold of God's beauty added in. The college stories gave me a chuckle, I was unceremoniously told by my Dad after high school graduation to pick a school and pack up!
Reading you is a gift.
So grateful for your beautiful words.Thank you.
My only child graduated in 2008. We drove to colleges on Staten Island and in Houston from our home in North Iowa. He chose a college 1 1/2 hours from home, and we are forever grateful. It gave him lifelong friendships. Roots and wings. Since graduating, he has lived in Guinea, West Africa; Paris (3 times and currently) and Taiwan. Amazing the markers, and where life leads us all.
God in all the thin places, all the unexpected moments. I pray I’ll be alert to them. Thank you for your wisdom.