Be Still! Be Still! – A Lesson from the Trees

Tree Line

Tree Line @ 2015 Bo Mackison

A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.

When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from [the eternal] mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.

~ Hermann Hesse in Betrachtungen und Gedichte

Boundary Line

Boundary Line

Boundary Line © 2008 Bo Mackison

“Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.” ~ Jimmy Carter