Month: October 2021

Inspired by trees


 

A poem

 
Lost

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

 
by David Wagoner, from Traveling Light: Collected and New Poems
 

Also inspired by trees

The children’s book, The Boy Who Grew a Forest (based on a true story).

Youtube video on how to make paper growing trees (from illustrator of The Boy Who Grew a Forest)

Article from themarginalian.org about Ursula K. Le Guin’s Love Poem to Trees, also featuring some stunning artwork.
 

From the blog

Winter = long nights
Flowers fall, but …
Tree of life
 

Big strong tree

 
One of my early children’s song was inspired by a verse from Hosea 14 where God likens himself to a tree.
 

“Israel, have nothing to do with idols. I, the Lord, am the one who answers your prayers and watches over you. I am like a green pine tree; your blessings come from me.”

 

The original Hebrew word for “pine tree” is sometimes translated as fir tree, cypress tree or juniper. And the word “green” is variously translated as “evergreen”, “luxuriant”, “flourishing”, “growing”, “glorious”.

What a beautiful picture for God, who watches over us and makes our lives fruitful, if we put our trust in him.
 

 
BIG STRONG TREE
by Irene Bom (from Shepherd King Project)


 
Chorus:
Lord, You are like a big strong tree
And You help us live fruitfully
Lord, You are like a big strong tree
And You help us live for You.

1. You are like the dew
You make us all blossom like the lilies
You are like the dew

(Repeat chorus)

2. You are like the vine
We will grow if we live in You
You are like the vine

(Repeat chorus)

3. You are like the stream
You fill us up with life-giving water
You are like the stream

(Repeat chorus)
 

Thank you. For fruit-bearing trees


Apples ready for harvest  (Photo: Irene Bom)
 

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.

 

Thanksgiving Litany

For summer’s passing and harvest home —
we thank you!
For autumn’s splendor and winter’s chill —
we thank you!
For seed that has fallen, the promise of spring —
we thank you!

As a part of nature’s wondrous cycle
of new birth, growth, fruitfulness and death
we rejoice in the creation of new life.

May our lives blossom as the apple tree in Spring
May we become fruitful in thought and deed
And may the seed of love that falls to the ground
Linger beyond our time on this earth.

 
~ posted on Third Space blog (excerpt)
 

Like a tree

 

Blessed is the one
       who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
       or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
       and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
       which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
       whatever they do prospers.

 

From the blog
Flowers fall, but …
Lord of the dance
Bend down low