Being Green

I look outside my kitchen window and see a vast wasteland – trees stripped of their leaves by rampaging and rapacious winter months and gypsy moths.  Scourges!

Waiting all winter long for the green of spring, I find myself pining for the poor trees that would scream if they could.   Crawling “worms” up the many trunks to feast on spring’s early fruits – the green leaves – the caterpillars are unwelcomed pests.  Now all oak leaves are

stripped to their veins making for grotesque, finger-like silhouettes against cloudy skies. 

Enough of my drama already!   It’s spring on Cape Cod where invasive insects have taken over to weaken trees – many of which will fall with winter winds.  Que sera sera.

Fortunately, most trees recover and leaves are regrown.   They are resilient.

And so are we.   Our lives can be upended by a sudden loss– a loss not of our making.   This loss can be related to health or finances.  There are a number of causes with one being disease stripping away our flesh leaving us gaunt and weak.   The scourge of cancer is one common culprit.

Yet we are resilient, and we fight to recover with God in our corner.   True, some of us will fall.  It’s inevitable.  Nevertheless, many us will rise up and regain our strength as the trees that leaf-out again.

Hope springs eternal for most of us, and that’s the way it must be as a centerpiece of our faith.  So, now when I look at those chewed-up leaves, I consider their condition a temporary setback.  Green is the symbol of growth and life. 

We should all think green.  As Kermit the Frog sings and then ends with his song, (It’s not easy being green), green is beautiful, and it’s what I want to be.” 

Deacon David Pierce