On my porch there are two potted trees (not just one!), waiting to be planted. But don't tell anybody.
Our Palm Sunday musical featured Tree #1, which represented the branches placed at the feet of Christ a week before Easter. But really I just wanted to grab people's attention with a giant tree in the middle of the sanctuary.
Tree #2 was a sneaky replacement prop for Good Friday. We bought this tree larger, and trimmed it to match the first tree's shape. Then we cut off every single leaf. It stood stark and bare for our Friday evening service, a symbol of death and the cross.
Tree #1, bushy and green, returned for Easter morning, newly filled with blooms to symbolize the resurrection.
This illusion involved me carrying trees back and forth to a hiding place in the back yard of an associate who lives next door to the church. Yes, I carried my tree-cross over my shoulder just hours before we commemorated the crucifixion. It was painful, thought-provoking, and I'm sorry, but darkly comical.
There's your back story, so let me get to the point. After Easter, this wiped-out music director went on a week's vacation and forgot all about the Easter Tree. It sat unwatered for days in a dark sanctuary until I rescued it, along with the “dead” tree hidden next door to the church. They're now on my porch. Tonight they gave me a handle on the mess that's in my head.
You see, the Easter Tree looks awful. It was cared for and made beautiful for one special day, then discarded and forgotten as a stage prop. And that's what I do – like a magician – I show you something evocative and poignant, and make you cry while I sing you an Easter song. Meanwhile the ugliness of my Good Friday tree is hiding somewhere behind a fence, because it's messy and unsightly and I'm ashamed that I can't really make it come back to life. But I'm an artist and a shaman, and that's what you pay me to do, isn't it?
Read the rest of this post over at The Second Road...
6 comments:
But its not about us. Its about you and you living a *real* life. A life in honesty and light. And from the blog entries I read on your blog it sounds like that is exactly what you are working on doing. Forget what they pay you to do...be true to yourself. It serves everyone well, especially you.
Trees have an amazing way of springing back. And maybe with a little watering, yours will too.
and life begins again, stronger, newer, fresher than before.
Listen to Syd and Cat.
Gardening is a miracle. Especially in sobriety. I've learned how to live by tending my yard.
Pruning is one of my favorite things to do. When something's been neglected, it usually needs a lot of crap cut away to let the sun inside.
this is a beautiful post. wow, what you have done here, and the thoughts. lovely. thanks. i haven't read before so I will have to catch up on your story. thanks for reading me and for your kind comment, it gave me much to think on as I head to rest tonight. peace, and best wishes. hope to hear from you again...mile 191
Eli, what I find fascinating is watching your marriage grow and mature. It took me 20 years of marriage to stop looking at my husband and wondering why I had married someone so beneath my elevated plane of thinking.
Now I wonder how in the hell he put up with me all these years;)
Your writing is a pleasure to read.
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