Where Does the Story End? (A Willow Update)

“If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.”
Orson Welles
I recently devoured the memoir, Memorial Drive. The book tells the story of a daughter whose mother was murdered by her step-father. I couldn’t stop reading it. I found the above quote at the end of one of the chapters.
Earlier that day, one of our novices told me some much-appreciated-during-these-days exciting news. To catch everyone up, remember our beautiful willow tree in the “backyard” that succumbed to wind a few weeks ago? Well, after it fell, two of the novices went out to salvage some of the branches and see if it would be possible to re-root the tree.
They did some research on care and length of time for re-rooting. They put some of their gatherings in different places to see if conditions would affect growth. (Such scientists!)
Well, Jackie reported to me that, indeed, the branches have grown new leaves! There seem to be hints of roots beginning to become visible, too!

Resurrection at its finest. This also reminds me of one of my favorite passages from all our prayer periods of the year, from Friday morning Tenebrae during the Triduum. The words are:

Even the bleakest life
sustains the consciousness
that somewhere, somehow,
there is going to be a resurrection,

a rebirth of life, of joy, of beauty,
that will never fade.

There is going to be a resurrection,
a rebirth of joy,
of beauty that will never fade.

This re-rooting is giving us “nature nerds” a little joy during an otherwise bleak time. These words re-new my hope during an otherwise bleak time.
Thanks for the good news and for reading poetry to our new trees daily, giving them the CO2 they desire, Jackie!
I love this photo because you can see Amma Willow in the background,
through the window…with some beautiful sunshine, too.
It’s easier to see those few new leaves in the photo on the right.

We think these could be new roots!