June Newsletter

The Road to The Trees

It doesn’t matter what else is going on in my life, whenever I get into the car and head to The Trees, things change. I feel my gears shift from “drive” into something lower, something slower. Suddenly, the meeting that didn’t go well and the one that will surely follow, the fretting about whether I actually paid the water bill, traffic, don’t fill up my brain as much as they did when I set out for 1701 Pleasant Green Road.

Sometimes on my drive, the story of Cleopas and his friend walking to Emmaus keeps me company. Those two were also filled with events and distractions. Actions and outcomes that were painful for two disciples who believed that their hopes for someone to free Israel from Rome’s oppression had been fulfilled. Walking slowly, comforting each other in their sadness, and trying to make sense of what had happened a few days earlier, they stop when a stranger asks what they are talking about. After they offer a summary, their new companion (the resurrected Jesus) explains everything to them.

Now, I used to think that it was the breaking of the bread that allows Christ to become visible to these two. I don’t doubt that that is true. But, I also think something else happens before the bread breaking which allows the power of the sacrament to shine through. When they reach Emmaus, Jesus keeps on walking but Cleopas and his companion urge Jesus, with deep openness and hospitality, to stay with them. After all, it is getting dark and these are dangerous times especially along a road less traveled. In the same way that a person’s faith enables Christ to heal, cure, and restore, I think that Cleopas and his friend so graciously welcoming Christ into their home is foundational to everything else that happens.

For me, The Trees has become a place that welcomes me when the road I’m traveling has become too hard or has lost some of its enchantment. It is a place of refuge from these times. A place where I can linger for a bit under a green canopy, even in this drought ridden season, see the wind move the leafy branches before I hear it, feel it touch my skin. A place where the Spirit moves and the ongoing Resurrection is close.

Paying Attention,

Duncan Smith, The Trees Development Board Chair