For me serendipity is just like snatching rubies out of thin air. Serendipity: “the faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.”

I was out walking and overheard two little girls playing in a yard.

“Where are you, Susie?”

“I’m over here at my favorite tree,” she replied, standing at the base of a pink magnolia in bloom. “I am sad. This is my favorite tree. I come here when I am sad.” There was a pause with no response from the other child. Then in a lilting voice Susie answered, “Do you want to see me climb my favorite tree?”

Can we become childlike during this pandemic? Recognize our sad feelings, but then go on to delight in the life we own at this moment? It has long been said that the waiting is the hardest part. Give me something definitive and I will find a way to cope. Leave me without a decision and I flounder and flop around. Perspective of that child? I am sad, but there is a tree right in front of me waiting to be climbed.

“Do you want to see me climb my favorite tree?”

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Matthew 18:1-5 NRSV

Come, Lord, help me climb this tree! Help me to humble myself and change. Help me become like a child.

Help me to be less fearful of the measure of time, and more fully alive in the time that simply is. Help me to live time, not just to simply use it; to breathe it in, and return it in acts of love and presence.

Avis Crowe

We were advised that in this worldwide crisis we would experience the famous stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Allow yourself to feel those emotions as they arise, then release them and let them go. They may overlap. You will go in and out of those various feelings.

Always look for your favorite tree. Climb it and be restored.