Big Sky Adventure | Day Five

“WE MUST TRAVEL IN THE DIRECTION OF OUR FEAR.”

 -John Berryman

‘There is a Tree in Montana’

Written by Marylin Foley, Brian’s mother BSK ‘94

There is a tree in Montana that is growing for me.

It was planted by human hands - a group of us - 

We got together, said a few words, put it in the ground.

It is a living thing.

We though, at the time, it was just another action.

We spoke self-conscious words, planted and dismissed.

But there is something in the human spirit;

We cannot give birth to life and then not have it haunt us.

It is our nature.

I see now what the tree means.

We gave birth to that time to…hope.

We see that whoever we are, wherever we come from, 

We are…the same.

We shared a time of pain, of opening to joy in life.

We are bound in spirit with yet another group of souls, 

though we may never see each other again.

And so we live more tenderly now,

We give back that joy in little things to those around us.

We have agreed to have our hearts broken again and again, 

knowing we can let it go right through us, like rain and snow goes through the tree to become one with the earth.

It is a living thing.

The tree will come and go I know.

But we will have been there. We have seen it.

We have unknowingly pledged ourselves to God’s love.

There is something of the human spirit in it. It grows.

Once having been planted, it can never be said it didn’t exist, it wasn’t real.

We take the vision. We cherish it. We know was it means. 

We thank God for each other. 

If we listen carefully we can hear it growing.

Peace is an evergreen tree.

Big Sky is a place for big souls; opening, growing, feeling, joy.

There is a tree in Montana that is growing for me.