MEDITATION 266: Be Like the Trees---Sr. Eileen from Mercy By the Sea and Carrie Newcomer (1/29/2021)

Dear Friends,

We pray you are safe and well.

Today's Meditation begins with a reflection "Be like the Trees" by Sr. Eileen from Mercy by the Sea Retreat House and flows into a poem by Carrie Newcomer.

We invite you to join us as we commit ourselves to working tirelessly to end systemic and structural racism in our society, in healthcare, in the workplace, in the Church--wherever it shows up so that everyone may come to have more abundant life. May this meditation nourish our contemplative-active hearts and sustain all of us in action.

In the spirit of our philosophy of co-creating community and our awareness that the Spirit speaks through each of us, we invite you to share your meditations with us as well. We truly believe that in God’s economy of abundance, when we share our blessings, our thoughts, our feelings, we are all made richer.

We hope and pray that you and your loved ones experience genuine peace of mind and heart, and remain in good health during this challenging time.

In this time of Covid surge and new beginnings for our country, may you find peace, healing, hope, and the infusion of joy in your life!

With our love and care,

Jean & Ron

MEDITATION 266: Be Like the Trees---Sr. Eileen from Mercy By the Sea and Carrie Newcomer

JANUARY 28: BE LIKE THE TREES

1/28/2021

Dear Friends,

In the past I have referred to the trees in the front of Mercy by the Sea as “sentinels”, not guarding us from something, but more in the sense of keeping watch over Mercy by the Sea. The trees have also been silent witnesses to the many activities of this land, the comings and the goings, and the lives and deaths of many creatures. They have also faithfully held the secrets of the many who paused to place a hand (and a heart) on the sturdy trunk or to hug the tree and cry. This week we said good bye to one of these trees, the copper beech, which had become ill and in decline. Some friends sat on the entry way and silently watched as the tree was removed. It was an all-day affair, and the arborists did not leave until after dark. All of us on staff prayed with Maya Angelou’s poem When Great Trees Fall. This loss has affected all of us.

Mary Oliver also commented on trees in her poem, Such Silence, “trees taller and older than I had ever seen. Such silence!” In her poem, Mary Oliver reflects on sitting by the tree and staying long enough to sense the deeper roots of everything. Would that we were more like the trees! Faithful, still and silent in a world of activity and frenzy, violence and incivility.

A piece of the tree has been reserved for a future memorial. And it is our hope to plant another tree to stand as a sentinel and as a witness to ongoing life on this land.

Ah, to be like a tree

With all its bent and unbent places,

A whole and holy thing

From its topmost twigs

To the deepest taproot

To all the good and graceful

Spaces between. (Carrie Newcomer)

In the spirit of Mercy,

Sister Eileen

Oh, if I could be more like a tree on this Sunday morning

See how the trees

Reach up and outward

As if their entire existence

Were an elegant gesture of prayer.

See how they welcome the breath of spirit,

In all its visible and invisible forms.

See how the roots reach downward and out,

Embracing the physical,

The body and bones

Of its soul of earth and stone,

Allowing half its life to be sheltered

in the most quiet and secret places.

Oh, if I could be more like a tree on this Sunday morning,

To feel the breath of invisible spirit

Touch me as tenderly as a kiss on the forehead.

If I could courageously and confidently

Dig down into the dark

Where the ground water runs deep,

Where shelter and sanctuary

Can be had and held.