Morning Blessings of the Trees
(Deciduous-Temperate Version)
By Evan Eisenberg
Blessed are you, Tree of Life*, rooted in heaven
...who has given the wood thrush a flute that can wake up the sun.
...who gives me light to eat.
...whose strength in my fingers cleaves the rock and makes water burst from stone.
...who makes busy the soil's dark kitchen, preparing my nourishment.
...who drinks the hidden waters through me, as through a straw.
...whose rainbow pledge I keep, quelling the flood.
...who makes my roots the bulwark of the soil.
...who makes me the lungs of the world.**
...who has not made me a street tree.
...who has not suffered me to be pollarded, coppiced, or espaliered.
...who has not made me topiary.
[Pollarded, coppiced, espaliered, and sculpted trees say:]
...who has taught me to mingle my arts with the arts of humankind.
[Street trees say:]
...who has nerved my roots to find life in concrete, and has caused me to dwell alone, finding your presence in the rushings and murmurings of humans.
...who gives me long years to watch the generations of moving things arise, dance their whirlwind dance, and pass away.
...who makes the moving things delight in my fruit and blossoms, so that they may be my helpers in love.
...who makes my fallen leaves the bed of new life.
...who will make my fallen trunk a home for new life.
...who makes my dead selves the core from which I grow.
...who makes me reckon time in circles, like the sun, moon, and stars.
...who gives me a coat of fiery colors to brave the winds of fall.
...who gives me the deep, white night in which to sleep.
...who raises up those who are bowed down with snow.
...who clothes the naked in luminous green.
...who makes me reach up in joy, like a friend at the wedding, to spread your canopy of peace.
* "Tree of Life" is a mystical metaphor for the Divine.
**The same blessing may be found in the prayers of grasses, algae, and cyanobacteria.
Evan Eisenberg is the author most recently of The Ecology of Eden, an inquiry into humankind's role in nature, real and imagined.
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