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Rev. Michelle's Message October 31, 2024
Wishing all of you a safe and fun Halloween….
Yesterday Alexander and I were walking our dog Winnie in the Rip Van Winkle Forest (dog park) on Congress Ave in PG, and we came upon a sad sight–the old Mother Tree of the forest had fallen down and was lying horizontal across the path. For years, we had paid our respects to this beautiful tree whenever we passed by, acknowledging her as the oldest tree in the forest, responsible for caring for and protecting the younger trees around her. Needless to say, it was heartbreaking to see her demise.
On the other hand, as we walked up to her I reminded myself that lying horizontally, she is now beginning to decompose and return her nutrients to the earth. She is providing shelter and a home for all kinds of forest critters such as birds, racoons, possums, and lizards. And while no longer upright, she is now host to even more organisms than she ever was as a “living tree.” Millions, billions perhaps, of microorganisms are living in her bark, breaking down the wood into nutrients that can be reabsorbed by the soil and go on to nourish other lives.
As we passed by her, I silently thanked her for the home she is providing for so many animals and for giving her own life to replenish the soil and help give life to new trees, shrubs, flowers, and plants.
As I am preparing for our Day of the Dead Celebration this Sunday, the topic of death is very much on my mind, and so I couldn’t help but see the deep metaphor in the fall of this giant tree. Life is both impermanent and eternal. Something dies so that others can live. The tree’s life as she once knew it may have ended, but she goes on living in a new way now as a host for so many other lives, and in this way her own life continues.
It is the infinite circle of life on this beautiful spinning blue ball. Individual lives come and go–die as it were–but Life itself is eternal. So it is with trees and so it is with us, too. Our individual lives will one day come to an end, yes. We will die. But our essence will go on in a way that is as yet mystery to me.
Life after death most likely will not look much like the life we have now, but perhaps it will be even better. Just as the old Mother Tree is broken down and decomposed and returns to the Earth, so too will we become part of the Earth again. Releasing our individual ego identity, we will once again become one with all that is.
As we prepare to honor and remember our loved ones who have passed this Dia de Muertos, may we take some comfort that these dear souls also have become one with all that is. They live on in our hearts, in our memories, in their legacy, but their essence–that eternal Life energy that we also call God–lives on as other forms of life–perhaps even a beautiful tree.
Maybe this is what Jesus meant when in the Gospel of Matthew he said, “I am with you always, even unto the end of time.” God is always with us and is always with our loved ones. As expressions of the One, neither we nor they can ever be separate from the infinite love of God.
Dia de Muertos Blessings,
Rev. Michelle
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