The Man Who Planted Trees (Frédéric Back, 1987)
I go outside each day to bask in the return of spring. I watch the earth come alive again. I like to sit on the front porch, on the same bench my mother once sat on. I see what she saw and will never see again: radiant blue sky, a family of deer in the yard, towering trees lush with leaves.
I cry. My heart shatters from the grief and also the beauty. When were the trees planted? Who put the seeds in the earth? I am grateful to them. What consolation the trees bring me.
I keep telling myself to turn toward life. For me, that is the message of The Man Who Planted Trees. In the deepest depression, in the worst desolation, turn toward life. Always. Turn toward the sky and the birds and the trees. And keep planting seeds. Keep creating. Keep cherishing the earth. Keeping making some offering, no matter how small.