Radical Grace
January – March 2008

A MEDITATION ON OUR COTTONWOOD TREE

by Richard Rohr, OFM

“Every branch that does bear fruit, God prunes to make it bear even more!”  John 15:2

    As many of you know who have visited our Center, formerly Tepeyac Guest House, our lovely back yard is graced by a monumental work of art.  A classic Rio Grande cottonwood tree, as much as 150 years old, that twists and turns in all directions, creates a sacred and glorious canopy over many of our Masses, parties, meditations, and meetings.  A local tree expert said that it would probably win the “Miss America” contest of beautiful cottonwoods in New Mexico.

    People invariably want to take pictures of it in summer shade, fall gold, winter snow, and spring green.  It never stops being lovely!  Our cottonwood is our Biblical tree of life, our de facto symbol, and graces many of our mastheads and pictures, as you have perhaps noticed.  If it is true that St. Boniface stopped the Germanic “worship” of trees, he has somehow failed with this German American.

   So on August 20 we hired some expert arborists to save our friend.  We were told it was in the early stage of disease, and was so huge that one wind storm or ice storm could do it in.  We would be smart to give it both a haircut and a treatment!  I had said when we first acquired the property in 1991, that I would personally find the money it would take to preserve our sacred tree, should it ever need a surgeon!  Well, it finally did.

   So all day I watched as the great lady shed almost one third of her branches, while exposing even more the basic twists and turns of her major arteries.  It was scary for some reason.  What if this would wound or defeat her?   Would she lose her marvelous asymmetrical symmetry?  By day’s end, however, most of us agreed she was even more beautiful and stately than ever, and somehow she was us!  The pruned cottonwood might even be our 20th birthday present from the Creator.

   Surely, we have each borne our shares of pruning in these 20 years; some more, some less than our tree in its 150 years. Most of our prunings have been both needed and well deserved, although hardly ever desired. There has been a persistent inability to live up to such a grand plan: sinfulness on all our parts, alienated staff,  missed opportunities, hurt feelings, broken relationships, a few deaths, failure of vision, poorly planned events.  These weigh on us like the overgrown branches, and the shadows of the too many leaves.  I suppose they always will, and maybe they must.  Don’t I teach that “true perfection is the ability to include imperfection”?

   Our prayer at this 20-year juncture is that we can continue to learn from every one of our failures and mistakes, not deny or project them elsewhere, and hear the truth, even if only 10%, that any of our critics and pruners might offer us. They are our friends.  As Ken Wilber says so well, in typical non-dual style, everyone is right.  I guess I would say, everything belongs.

         How easy pruning is when accepted and seen in this way—not just easy, but even a necessary and wonderful gift from God.  Just like our pruned cottonwood.  I hope it can stand another 20 or even 150 years, long after we are gone, and continue to preach our message to following generations.  Only the pruned tree bears fruit, and fruit that will last.

Fr. Richard Rohr is a Franciscan of the New Mexico Province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, N.M.

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