An Olive Tree grows in New Jersey

Have you ever watched something die and then come back to life again? It does often happen in nature when we see. My niece gave me a small, beautiful, olive tree as a gift and it flourished for a while. At some point the moisture and gloomy weather of New Jersey was too much. It died. I never thought it would grow again.

After living outside in its beautiful olive pot, I was ready to plant a perennial in the pot. I looked closer. There in the center of the pot between two large round-shaped stones was a small olive bud. It has been outside in the cold and wet winter. How did it come back? I brought it inside where it is warmer and it is flourishing. Its small leaves and stem are growing quickly.

It is Good Friday in Holy Week and whether you believe in the resurrection or not, we all know what death looks like. It is the end of our physical body–be it olive tree, animal or human. I have never seen anyone resurrected from the dead. But I have seen people whose lives have turned around and been brought back to life through medicine, care and beginning again. Sometimes people are on a trajectory toward death, when something causes them to make the necessary steps to live. We are capable of new life. We are capable of great good. The olive tree began in the dark winter in the wet dark soil to slowly change underground and mysteriously burst though when life began to get warmer.

Yesterday Lily, a sweet and older cat died. She was one of my favorite cats in the shelter where I volunteer. She was a special cat and as Jung expressed about all animals “live the sublime and, in fact, represent the “divine” side of the human psyche.” She lived in contact with nature and close to “absolute knowledge” of the unconscious. Divine she was and I will miss seeing her in this world.

Where charity and love are, God is there.