Catherine Walther is a former nurse and hospital Chaplain who lives in Toronto. Catherine has found great meaning in the writings of Teilhard de Chardin, as well as Creation Spirituality, and the new cosmology.
I remember as a child in Montreal sitting outside in our back yard being fascinated by the wind in the trees. And when I was older, taking my first course on Teilhard de Chardin and sitting on the same porch looking at the trees in wonder as I tried to take in what he was saying.
When I moved to Toronto and lived with my cousin she had already moved in and chose the bedroom facing the back yard so I got the one facing the front. And I was so happy because there was a tree right outside my window that I could almost touch.
And when I moved to the final family house in Don Mills, a little bungalow, sure enough there were two beautiful apple trees in the back yard, and the living room with its large windows of sliding doors looked right out to them. Sitting in my favourite chair facing them was what got me through our marriage break up.
And then I moved to the condo and there wasn’t a tree to look at. After renovating the kitchen and bathrooms I finally sold it so I could move across the hall where I am now, and have a wall of windows facing huge black oak trees. These trees got me through Covid and are my relatives. We breathe each other.
I’m waiting to move to Presentation Manor, an assisted living place in Toronto, and my only request is that there be a tree outside my window. I know it will see me through whatever is ahead for me.
Thanks so much Catherine, this is so relatable! I have beautiful trees outside every window of my apartment and I can’t imagine my life without them.