Hangin' with Trees

a surprise spiritual morning

Until this weekend I hadn’t spent a night away from home in a few years, so when the opportunity presented itself to head to Washington DC for a quick work trip, I jumped. The majority of my time was spent behind a folding table in a parking garage turned “exhibition hall”, but there was good company, a baby therapy dog, an excellent vodka mule (or two), and most memorably, a moment of absolute spiritual bliss on my way to the airport.

As I dragged my rolling suitcase around on the unseasonably cold 30 degree morning along the National Mall, it wasn’t the fragile buds of the cherry blossom trees that I came to see that left me awestruck—it was everything unfolding around them. While most people vied for a prime spot along the water, I was drawn to the back, attempting to zoom out as if I was a human wide angle lens. I saw children, grandparents and everything in-between. I heard more languages than I could count. Yet, here we were, freely flocking to spend a few minutes with trees….TREES.

Nature was the star. Not the latest headline—NATURE. We were hanging out with TREES….TOGETHER. Soaking in the magic of trees isn’t new for me, but suddenly I found myself in the company of 1,000s of others who shared one of my favorite pastimes if only for a few moments. As we reveled in the beauty of spring, I was also keenly aware of the layers of paradox that draped over all of us.

We stood in the presence of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Many of us had walked by the WWII Memorial. And the beautiful blue water was fed by a river, named for the Patawomeck, whose land was stolen, chief murdered and tribe massacred.

Humans. Trees. Love. Pain. All present.

Then I had to get in an Uber.

As I settled into my seat on for the short flight back to Boston, I opened up the book I picked up on my trip, Big Mama Speaks: Love Lessons from a Harlem River Swan. Sabrina N’Diaye’s words were the perfect addition to my brief morning with the blossoms and left me raw in the best way 30,000 feet in the sky. I’ll leave you with this snippet:

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