An old-growth forest. Yellow cedar, Sitka spruce, Douglas fir have been around for centuries, literally. Year after year, they cycle through the seasons and grow imperceptibly taller, more solid, roots extending. That is what I’m becoming.
The slow pace of summer lingers in my body, calling me to come and play outside–walk among the trees, bike into the country. The trees invite me to do ordinary things, enjoy ordinary moments, and let the work of producing come and go.
Autumn to spring my life has been dominated by work. I have gone days without getting outside and when I do, I’m still thinking about work.
This fall feels different. The compulsion to endlessly produce has subsided. Life flows like sap through my trunk, greens around the edges, and bears seed, but most of the time, I’m just standing, being–
An old-growth forest.
That is what I am becoming, situated in the background, rooted in the organic ecosystem, sending and receiving nutrients underground from a network of love.
For this, I give thanks to my Creator.
Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
–Genesis 1:11,12
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Fred and I watched the documentary Hadwin’s Judgement. It’s the story of Canadian environmentalist Grant Hadwin and his drastic measures to stop clear-cut logging. It was heartbreaking to see the devastation that he witnessed. Because of more and more people like Hadwin and John Vaillant, who appears in this documentary and wrote about Hadwin in The Golden Spruce, forestry is changing in Canada.
What love mischief are you and God doing for the world?
Let me know and I will include it in an upcoming post.
An Everyday Pilgrim 