Tree Wisdom

Dear Friends,

Linus is always ready with philosophical remarks. Falling leaves and bare branches provoke reflection on my part, too. What lasts? What fades and dies? Where do humans fit in the cycles of creation? What can I learn from a tree?

As a young teacher, I encouraged students to choose a tree to observe for the school year. I told them to watch closely. Each week they and I then wrote a few words about what we saw. Some weeks we wrote about what the tree saw. What season? Any changes? Any growth?

This chaotic, beautiful autumn invites me to attend to the growing things. Here is a 1928 Robert Frost poem that may speak to you, too.

Tree at My Window

Tree at my window, window tree,
My sash is lowered when night comes on;

But let there never be curtain drawn
Between you and me.

Vague dream head lifted out of the ground,
And thing next most diffuse to cloud,
Not all your light tongues talking aloud
Could be profound.

But tree, I have seen you taken and tossed,
And if you have seen me when I slept,
You have seen me when I was taken and swept
And all but lost.

That day she put our heads together,
Fate had her imagination about her,
Your head so much concerned with outer,
Mine with inner, weather.

~ Susan Schantz SSJ