On the Drive Home

As I was driving back into town late this afternoon, feeling sick and claustrophobic in my own chest, I realized after hours of busyness and errands I'd become stuck inside myself.  Immediately, I lifted my eyes and called out, the obvious remedy.  And, in that same moment, my sight was drawn from the clarity of the blue sky to one silver-trunked tree, very tall amidst the forest lining the road.  It's branches were outstretched in joyful surrender to the sky with pale leaves like tiny mirrors flashing on a wind-chime as the breeze moved them.  I saw the forest better for that tree; the many ordinary maples and oaks surrounding this rooted light were not ordinary, and the occasional purple-red treetop stood out in contrast to those of a green shade but detracted nothing from them.  The rare dash of color in fact completed the whole with a harmony no human or accident could ever arrange.  And all of these trees, in branching out to one another, touched that swaying silver beauty and the heavens that were reflected on its leaves in the sun.  In that, their own magnificence was revealed.  That glistening tree, like a ladder, could not help but draw everything straight upward and outward, including my own mind, which one second before had been so cramped and consumed with dwelling.  I followed that tree up every twinkling branch, and all the visual noise of houses and telephone poles and litter disappeared, leaving a natural world that points to the paradise that is our Home and deepest longing.

As I drove past the tree I was overcome by gratitude in the wonder and splendor of marriage and the co-creation that flows from it, of the communion of saints, and of the astonishing truth that this is only the beginning for all of us.  And, that is Hope.  Not wishful thinking, but Easter --real, Christian Hope.  In that Hope I felt radiant that through God's perfect design of our vocation my husband and I are blessed to not only bring souls into the world, but to help one another to someday be together where the tree of life has its source.  If you ever feel stuck inside your own head, call the Source by name.  He will lift you up to places unexpected.  Whatever your vocation, married, single, priestly or religious, you're far from alone on this drive Home.