Sycamore trees, and God's Presence

Back home again in Indiana
Where it seems that I can see
The gleaming candle light,
still shining bright,
through the sycamores for me.
The new mown hay
in all its splendor
through the fields I used to roam
When I dream about the
moonlight on the Wabash
then I dream of my Indiana home
By Kathleen Hughes

THE SYCAMORE TREE
As I sang about the Sycamores in the song above, I remember a time that I couldn't identify a sycamore tree.

Sixty years, ago, my husband (now deceased) and I settled into a new town in New York State. One day, while singing a Hoosier song about sycamore trees, I wondered whether our new town had a sycamore tree. The next day, with my daughter in her stroller, we passed a tree whose name I didn't know. In a book about trees, I discovered, the tree was a sycamore.

Later, when I visited Indiana, I wondered where I might find a sycamore tree. What a surprise I had! Almost every tree along our street was a sycamore tree.

Why hadn't I learned to identify trees in my schooling? Wasn't nature included in my school's curriculum? Or didn't the names of nature's lives interest me at a young age?

Now I find it exciting to observe not only people, but creatures, plants, and trees, flowering bushes, even grass. I am no longer surprised to see that bushes and trees drop their leaves in a drought. Of course they do, and to conserve moisture. And from whose signal? Grass can be trampled upon, but soon recovers. Trees heal from wounds, (as do we)

If not with spiritual guiding, how does a mosquito know I am a food source? Does a mosquito know also that to survive, it must risk its life? There are risks in our lives that we, also, are obliged to take! Isn't there a risk when an older infant, feels urged to stand up and walk all alone?

How creative God is to make so many species of plants, of trees, and of animals. Human folk are different. We appear to be of one specie. As human beings, we may consider ourselves more special. Yet, we are just as dependent, as are other lives, on the love and continuing care of God.
Marylee Manson Armour,
August 6, 2006, August 9th, 2006
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