The story of the week is the folktale The Tree of Life, a Tu B’Shevat Tale from Israel ( Tu B’Shevat means the Jewish New Year for Trees, when trees shake off their winter sleep and come alive again). The Tree of Life is taken from Michal Caduto’s The Garden of Wisdom: Earth Tales from the Middle East. Check out Caduto’s amazing work and his programs for environmental awareness and cultural exchange at http://www.p-e-a-c-e.net The Tree of Life tells the story of Honi who knows the special prayers to bring the rain.
It is important to create a universal library of multicultural stories that honor and respect the earth. This involves seeing the common threads that connect all living beings together in vast, interdependent, open, connected intercommunities. People shouldn’t be afraid when specific stories located in specific cultural and historical milieus invoke gods, spirits, powers, ideas that are different from one’s own. Although we must remain vigilant to see how specific cultural stories and religions are used as tools of oppression and violence, we must also be open to the good in different ethical, narrative and religious traditions.
There is always the danger that we won’t wake up and we will remain lost in confusion, hatred and greed. We need to listen to one another and create a genuine interchange of ideas and understandings that will enable all of us to construct sustainable, peaceful, vibrant forms of life and ways of living together for successive generations to come. Thus what’s most important to me about this story is “the circle” that Honi draws around himself to activate his prayer. May this circle stand for the water cycle, the circle of the seasons, and the circle of loving-kindness and care that brings us together in common cause to “plant and prepare the way for future generations to flourish.”