A Dead Tree Cries to Heaven

 A Dead Tree Cries to Heaven

A Reflection on Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si

 Dr Abe V Rotor 

Living with Nature - School on Blog

I cry to heaven, for I have done something in life worth living; I gave food and oxygen and shelter to humans, and many organisms - tenants and symbionts, under my care for the many years of my existence, season after season;

I cry to heaven for the peace and quiet I provided, the coolness and freshness of the surroundings I shared with neighbors, visitors and passersby, now lost and forever gone, and I, I am but a silhouette of past memories;

I cry to heaven, for I once represented many a great tree in history and literature like the oak tree under its shade Abraham Lincoln studied law, the tree on which the Robinson Family built a house, the Banyan tree that houses a temple in India;

Haunting skeleton of a once beautiful, mighty tree, QC Metro Manila 

I cry to heaven, for didn't I catch the rain and store water in the ground and feed the streams and rivers, catch the sun's energy and make food and many products by the wondrous process of photosynthesis that make a living world? 

I cry to heaven, for didn't I find a place in an ecosystem in which I played my part well in the flow of energy, in the food web, and interrelationship with other ecosystems necessary in maintaining dynamic balance humans call homeostasis?

I cry to heaven, for didn't I make children happy climbing my branches, playing hide and seek on my limbs; soothe the pains of the sick, lonely and old with fragrance and whispers of cool breeze; cushion noise into silence and music?

I cry to heaven, on behalf of my dead brothers and sisters, my forebears and my progenies, countless of them, that met the same fate as mine, by the very hands of the "guardians of creation," anointed or self-proclaimed;

I cry to heaven, on behalf of humans starving, sick and dying, in spite of the abundance of products my kind make, humans who fail to learn or respect the ways of nature, who abuse her to satisfy their insatiable greed and lust;

I cry to heaven for justice, more than human justice can fathom, more than the norms of ethics and morality of a civilized society, more than the proselytizing of the pious and the "pure at heart" profess in dignifying human life and existence;

I cry to heaven even if I am but a tree, insignificant and unknown in this wide world, and now that my time has come to claim a place as humans believe in the afterlife, I just would say thanks to my Creator, for making me an instrument of love. ~ 

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*Latin for "Praised Be," Laudato Si' is the name of Pope Francis' encyclical on caring for our common home — planet earth. The letter is addressed to "every person living on this planet" and calls for a global dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet through our daily actions and decisions. The Pope criticizes consumerism and irresponsible economic development, laments environmental degradation and global warming, and calls all people of the world to take "swift and unified global action". Originally published: June 18, 2015.

Acknowledgement: Internet, Google, Wikipedia.