The Maple Tree and the Dumpster

Sep 16

The most beautiful tree on campus at St. Francis de Sales School during the fall is this red maple tree. Its leaves turn that stunning scarlet, almost merlot, color. It is tall, reaching toward the light. Its roots are deep into the soil.

And, it sits behind the dumpster.

This scene is right outside the Provincial Office in Toledo. And as I look at it, I can tell you, I often ignore one of these two components.

When I look at the tree, I ignore the dumpster.

When I see the dumpster, I forget the tree.

But perhaps that is precisely what makes this image worth reflecting upon.

At first, the two do not seem to belong together. One is a beautiful tree, and the other is a functional dumpster. And yet, both need to exist.

There is something very Salesian about that.

Salesian Spirituality teaches us to see the whole of reality. Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal did not pretend that life was always beautiful. They knew about disappointment, death, conflict, loss, weakness, and the ordinary messiness of human life. In the same scene, they also had an extraordinary ability to recognize God's presence and goodness right in the middle of it.

They saw both the tree and the dumpster.

One of the gifts of Salesian Spirituality is the ability to hold beauty and functionality together, the extraordinary and the ordinary, the sacred and the everyday.

I sometimes want one without the other. I want a beautiful tree without the dumpster. I want the dumpster without anything to draw attention to it. I want grace without struggle. I want the resurrection without the cross. I want a beautiful life without the ordinary work and inconvenience that make life possible.

I hope the next time I look out the window, I won't see the maple and forget the dumpster. I won't see the dumpster and forget the maple.

I'll try to see both.

Now I see clearly: the most Salesian way of seeing is not choosing between beauty and reality, but discovering God in the midst of both.

May God be Praised!