Shelby Selvidge: Week 1

I was to drawn to my tree from the beginning. The first day we arrived in Kaikoura at The Old Convent while exploring our new home I noticed a dark blue hammock strung between two large limbs, about 10ft above the ground, of a tree. Later, I was told it was a walnut tree one of which produced much of the walnuts we had in tubs inside. Not in walnut season now you would have to be able to identify the tree by other means. I had never seen a walnut tree before. I was drawn to climb the tree and sit in the hammock initially. As I daily came to the hammock and I began to recognize and become familiar with the nubs and branches that I used as climbing holds on the tree. Each day I would seek retreat and solitude with God in the branches and I found it and Him there. Somedays I stare through the layers of leaves to the sky, seeing God in their movements or stillness; or shut my eyes and listen to the songs of the birds as they hop form branch to branch overhead, hearing the voice of God in their song; and other days running my fingers over the ridges of the bark while singing my own song, just to feel God in every line. The walnut tree in our backyard is more than a tree it's a piece of God speaking to me, my friend, companion, peace, solitude, rest, and sometimes pain, frustration, but most of all when I'm there in the hammock its 'Emmanuel' - God with us, with me. So I've named my tree Emmanuel.