Julia’s Legacy

A tiny tree planted twenty years ago

Dwarfs me now,

casting shadows on my shoulders

The shadows I casted into the future when I put the sapling into the earth with a prayer for families I would never meet—

To one day shade the children who come to play in the park

The park my infant daughter never got to play in

This tree planted to honor Julia’s growing legacy,

A Legacy of Joy & Light in me despite Life’s ongoing absurdity

The long shadows of grief that dwarfed me then, have long pulled back into the most gorgeous dappling light

The dappling of Life’s beautiful impermanence that flutters through all

Around me

A Radiance of Joy, grief and the absurdity

A Chinese proverb asks when is the best time to plant a tree? The best time is twenty years ago,

Yet another best time is today

A planting of seeds for a better future

A future we may never see, yet belong to as much as our ancestors belong to our joy, grief and the absurdity of our days

Casting shadows into our ways of praise

Making a legacy—

an action of love for the beyond ourselves

for the interconnectedness of it all