Feb. 4, 2026
“I have come to believe that we are all rather like tree rings and shell patterns…”
~Anngwyn St. Just
Beloveds,
I hope you are finding this week warmer than last!
One of my favorite Christmas presents this year was a lovely little book entitled How to Be More Tree (by Liz Marvin, illus. Annie Davidson), and my attention has been more focused on the trees around me in recent days than usual. Consequently the sentence above stood out to me as I was reading last week. Here is the rest of it & a little more:
I have come to believe that we are all rather like tree rings and shell patterns in that what has happened to us leaves a permanent record. The goal of trauma work, therefore, as I see it, is not to erase or cure but rather to expand and include and grow larger than whatever has happened to us. If one thinks in terms of integration and resolving rather than eliminating trauma, then there is a possibility of guiding a multidimensional human organism toward an experience of relative balance and resiliency. (St. Just, Relative Balance in an Unstable World)
I am not a trauma expert, but I see the wisdom in approaching the inevitable experiences that do not serve to create joy and peace in our lives (like being cold or afraid of damage to our homes or harm to our loved ones) as invitations offering a possibility (wanted or not) for expansion and inclusion. This is, I think, a bit more than a restatement of the old adage “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” It is an invitation to know ourselves not just as strong, resilient beings, but also as deeply connected to all that is and embedded in connections that offer healing and enlargement, even in the face of threats of all kinds. This way of seeing a human being focuses on resilience, our ability to acknowledge and work with even the lessons, experiences, and facts of life we might choose to escape if we could.
Yours in love and being like a tree,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org
P.S. If any of you are still without power, please do check-in by email if we can help. Email directory@gnuuc.org to send messages of need and/or encouragement and offers of help to each other.
