New Year for Trees

My dear Friends

Yesterday was The Jewish New Year for Trees. Sometimes called Tu Bi'Shvat, this refers to the date, the 15th of the month Shevat, in the Jewish Lunar Calendar. So it moves around a bit, usually between the end of January and the beginning of March.

This Feast is the anniversary or birthday of The Little Sisters of Joy. Yesterday was our 9th anniversary, so we are in our 10th year. In the year 2000, in Benigna's garden in Cambridge, a group of us stood around while I planted a sapling silver birch tree. Then we recited Psalm 96 (95) Let the trees of the wood all shout for JOY, at the presence of the Lord, for He comes...'

We were also commemorating the new life of Latif Freedman, Benigna's son-in-law, who died shortly after having lunch with us on the previous Christmas day. He was a wonderful composer and he love the little trio of silver birch trees in the Cambridge Botanical Gardens. In 2003, having moved to the Arbury, I planted another silver birch with the help of a friend. And Arbury is connected to the word in Latin 'arbor' meaning tree.

Don't you think there is something magical about silver birch trees? Feminine and elegant, they are used by some Native tribes for their canoes, as these people feel they have a special presence. The silver birch tree in Benigna's garden is extremely tall now; some years I asked Benigna, as we were standing together looking up at it, how long she thought it would last. 'Longer than you and me,' she replied.

Going back to the Feast of Tu Bishvat, it all started in my Jewish childhood, when I use to love, on this day, taking in as many fruits as I could to school. Lychees were quite rare in those days...

Our whole mission is about bearing fruit, which will last until eternity. Please pray that lots of trees can be planted with our help.

Love and Shalom
Sister Gila