Let Us Be Glad

The first acorns from our black oak tree lie on our deck. One year I measured a 23" leaf from that tree. Some leaves cling to the branches long into the cold time, and the fallen ones feel tough, leathery in the hand. In this summer heat, the living, breathing tree arches over our roof, shades our tall, vulnerable windows, shares its way of being with us. The tree simply exists in parallel with us in space where we also exist.

False sentimentality might claim the tree as friend, as one which loves us. In fact, that tree with its three large stems simply follows its life directive to survive. In fact, the tree branch that reaches farther over the roof every year will either be trimmed or fall on us one day.

"There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: righteous men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 8:14-15, New International Version. Sentence accent added.)

Change and change and change, and in the midst, in this marvelous moment, as the oak shades us from heat and acorns begin to fall, let us be glad. Moment by moment, let us be glad.