If a Tree Falls: Contemplating Life’s Blessings and Challenges

By Junietta Baker McCall

Some of us are in the habit of thinking about what we know; what we have experienced and are experiencing; and what we would like to focus on more deeply. While this habit is evidenced in differing ways it is clearly a process that seems to form part of the essence of who human beings are. And there is plenty to think about every day.
Furthermore, this habit of thinking about life, has resulting in many interesting inventions, movements, and even inspiration about life. This is important. For when we are limited in our ability to engage in self-reflection, we stand a chance of becoming unbalanced. For it is possible to have what might be called a poverty in thinking and making sense of those thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. While it is also possible to think so much that one is stuck and in a ruminating rut that can cause disorders of the mind, heart, and soul. While it is not usually good to have a sparsity of thoughts and experiences it is also not usually good to be overwhelmed by them What is good is to have an appropriate abundance of wonderment that leads to stimulation of person and community.
And so here we are – at the beginning of a book consisting of many pages containing thoughts about what the author and others know; what she and others have experienced; and some things many would like to focus on more deeply. And this time the material will be presented in a format similar to the previous publication, One Lesson at a Time 1– as a model for structured journaling, including content for contemplation, and hopefully rich sources for reframing memory, and furthering inspiration that leads to growth and development on the reader’s personal and perhaps communal levels.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9781663245533

Junietta Baker McCall

Junietta Baker McCall, D. Min. is the previous director of pastoral psychotherapy and counseling education at Beverly Hospital, Beverly, Massachusetts. For twenty-two years she served as director of pastoral services at New Hampshire Hospital in Concord. A retired licensed pastoral psychotherapist, diplomate in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and ordained minister of The United Church of Christ, she is the author of Grief Education for Caregivers of the Elderly; A Practical Guide to Hospital Ministry; Bereavement Counseling: Pastoral Care for Complicated Grieving; Building Hope During Challenging Times; With Wings Widespread: Reflections on Life and Hospital Ministry; Co-author of Living Well as You Age; and her recent publication: One Lesson at a Time: a Year of Living Thoughtfully. Dr. McCall has served as adjunct faculty member in pastoral counseling at Andover newton Theological School and as associate pastor of South Congregational Church in Concord. She is currently retired and remains in Concord, New Hampshire, where she is working on two new pieces temporarily titled ‘One Life to Live’ and ‘Living a Grateful Life’.

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Copyright © 2022 Junietta Baker McCall.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-4554-0 (sc)

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2022917837

iUniverse rev. date: 10/06/2022

Contents

Dedication

About the Author

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1 Beginnings

Chapter 2 Mid-Season & Taking Chances

Chapter 3 Winter and Indwelling

Chapter 4 Spring, Seedlings and Renewal

Chapter 5 Summer and Blossoming

Chapter 6 Laying Back and Harvesting Gratitude

End Notes

Bibliography

Dedication

I am dedicating this book to its readers: those who enjoy thinking about their experiences and developing theories and philosophies about the life they are experiencing.

On a more personal level I want to dedicate this piece to my sons Seth and Jeremiah who continue to enrich my spirit in tangible and even invisible but impactful ways.

Next, I want to dedicate this effort to my daughters-in-law Sheri and Olivia. They have been my best and only daughters ever. Plus, they have loved my sons whom I cherish.

Next, but not necessarily last come my grandsons Tyler, Dylan, Cameron and Kevin who bring back to me the joys of being young, and of having innate wisdom and curiosity about their worlds.

And the last dedication is reserved for my husband John C. who continues to listen and support my dreams of expressing myself through writing.

About the Author

Junietta Baker McCall, D. Min. is the previous director of pastoral psychotherapy and counseling education at Beverly Hospital, Beverly, Massachusetts. For twenty-two years she served as director of pastoral services at New Hampshire Hospital in Concord. A retired licensed pastoral psychotherapist, diplomate in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and ordained minister of The United Church of Christ, she is the author of Grief Education for Caregivers of the Elderly; A Practical Guide to Hospital Ministry; Bereavement Counseling: Pastoral Care for Complicated Grieving; Building Hope During Challenging Times; With Wings Widespread: Reflections on Life and Hospital Ministry; Co-author of Living Well as You Age; and her recent publication: One Lesson at a Time: a Year of Living Thoughtfully. Dr. McCall has served as adjunct faculty member in pastoral counseling at Andover newton Theological School and as associate pastor of South Congregational Church in Concord. She is currently retired and remains in Concord, New Hampshire.

Acknowledgements

There is always a long list of witnesses to every book I have written. There are those elements of creation including nature and humanity that stir my thoughts and bring about the birthing process of writing a journal such as this. It is obvious but important to acknowledge their impact on my life and writing.

I especially acknowledge that living in a world where the seasons change and bring with them different experiences, challenges and opportunities is a very good thing. After all I am blessed with four distinct seasons and an abundance of reasons to focus on everyone.

And this time around I want to acknowledge that Ms. Kratz, my sixth-grade teacher gave me the best school assignment ever! This being a twelve-page autobiography of my life. Having just rediscovered it and read through the pages of wisdom as experienced by an eleven-year-old, I realize the impact that homework assignment has had on me. So, thank you, Ms. Kratz.

And finally, one more nod to the village of families, teachers, neighbors, friends, patients and clients, and authors who have probably unknowingly lent their experiences and wisdoms to this volume.

1

Beginnings

Some of us are in the habit of thinking about what we know; what we have experienced and are experiencing; and what we would like to focus on more deeply. While this habit is evidenced in differing ways it is clearly a process that seems to form part of the essence of who human beings are. And there is plenty to think about every day.

Furthermore, this habit that humans have of thinking about life, and in particular their life, has resulting in many interesting inventions, movements, and inspiration about life. This is important. For when we are limited in our ability to engage in self-reflection, we stand a chance of becoming unbalanced.

For it is possible to have what might be called a poverty in thinking and making sense of those thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. It is also possible to think so much that one is stuck and in a ruminating rut that can cause disorders of the mind, heart, and soul. While it is not usually good to have a sparsity of thoughts and experiences it is also not good to be overwhelmed by them What is good is to have an appropriate abundance of wonderment that leads to stimulation of person and community.

And so here we are – at the beginning of what is a book consisting of many pages containing many thoughts about what the author and others know; what she and others have experienced; and some things to focus on more deeply. And this time the material will be presented in a format similar to the previous publication, One Lesson at a Time ¹– as a model for structured journaling. There will be plenty of content for contemplation and rich resources for reframing memory and furthering inspiration that leads to growth and development on personal and perhaps communal levels.

Getting after it

On what used to be CNNs’ Cuomo Prime Time, Chris Cuomo, the show host repeated on each occasion that his show aired a section called, Let’s get after it.² What a neat phrase for encouraging viewers to think about current events, challenges, and wisdom or folly of the day. And for my part I took to the phrase, as did many other viewers. And I have applied the idea to this book. Because I am hoping to get after a lot of ideas, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and experiences common to many of us and perhaps some novel ones too.

To tame the process of getting after things I have divided If a Tree Falls into six parts following the North American seasons of slightly over one calendar year:

Beginnings

Midseason and Taking chances

Winter and Indwelling

Spring and Renewal

Summer and Blossoming

Laying Back and Harvesting Gratitude

Using a journaling format, each entry within each season will direct our focus on the author’s experiences, reflections, thoughts, feelings, and skills learned in life in general and in the practice of professional care and counseling. When an entry needs a little research that process is included.

There are also suggestions for how those reading an entry might get after- a topic, quandary, or issue. How they might apply what they have experienced and believed that has worked well for them. And there may be times when one could consider changing their thoughts and feelings about what is being discussed. Some suggestions for changing and adjustments according to personal preference will also be included.

There is no suggested order to the reading of a book like this. One can follow the seasons. One can move around as the spirit so directs. One can read an entry at a time, three a day, or whatever seems helpful. Probably one’s best bet is not to try to move through the book at the speed of light. As it took time to write this kind of journal so too would rummaging through it be best done from a meditational point of view. But that is completely up to each reader for everyone his, her, their own style.

The Role of Inspiration

Christmas, 2019, I purchased a rock up in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. The rock was green, smooth, and had a non-symmetrical shape. The information provided was that the rock, African Aventurine, represented the heart chakra and would promote creativity, imagination, prosperity, career, success, balance, and heals circulation.³

Since my son Jeremiah had been talking about focusing on balance in his life, I thought the rock would surely be a perfect gift for him. And the other benefits couldn’t hurt either. Plus, the old saying that it is the thought that counts could surely apply.

So it is that life is full of motion: ideas, memories, experiences, and potential inspiration. And just as we need memory joggers so too do we need thought and vision starters to move us forward. In my case, for some reason, probably my training as a pastoral psychotherapist and chaplain/clergy have helped me look at the many angles of just about any thought, experience, belief, and action. Both my own and those of others. The benefits being that engaging in such a process produces not only solutions but also energy and inspiration. Some of this is useful to self, some is useful to others. All is interesting.

This journal is a way to view things differently. A way to pay attention to my inner world and what is going on, or maybe going on around me. It is also a way to encourage others to engage in similar processes.

The Art of Contemplating Life

Former United States president, Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn have long since retired to their home in Plains, Georgia. As authors of numerous books, mostly written after retirement from government service they have provided a constructive model for engaging in action and reflection processes that seem to have no end. They continue to weave together personal experience, history and context, authentic feelings, and personal development with solid research on their chosen topics.

In a small volume written in 1998, The Virtues of Aging, Carter writes of the challenge he and Rosalynn had after President Carter’s defeat in the 1980 election. Here he writes,

"…nothing I said or did could induce her [Rosalynn] to look to the future

with any pleasure or confidence.

For a while we just paused and contemplated our lives."⁴

What a memorable line. For, in the good and the challenging times, many of us find ourselves pausing and contemplating life. We look within. We remember the past. We consider where we are. We think of the future. We yearn for things to be better, or if good, to stay the same. We seek insight. We seek relief and pleasure. And we seek inspiration.

When we are in a contemplative mode we pause, take time out and for just a few moments we breathe in and out. We consider the serious, the sublime and the downright silly. We take our metaphorical temperature, and we plot our next move.

Contemplation is not subject to age. However, it does seem that the older we get the more experiences we have to think about. Or at least, there are different things on which we choose to contemplate. But contemplate we do. Some more than others. Some more frequently than others. Some with little awareness of the process and others with great awareness. Some with innate skills for doing so and others who learn how to contemplate the hard way. But contemplate we humans do!

Whether we are the only part of creation that contemplates is a question perhaps for researchers to consider. I do know that my grand dog Theo seems to await certain words and seems to have an inner time clock and ability to figure out what his human family is doing or about to do. Ah, but how other elements of creation contemplate their existence is for another endeavor.

How Many Angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Or what happens if a tree falls?

Last time, in One Lesson at a Time the focus was on setting aside a year to wonder about what life has to teach me and others, and what is being learned. While the search is probably the same, this time I am adding a conscious wonderment about conundrums, quandaries, and other things that can confuse anyone who is trying to pause and pay attention. Thus, the title: If a Tree Falls.

So, what is a conundrum?

A conundrum is a difficult question or a riddle. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? That can be called a conundrum. Apparently one can conject answers to riddles like this, but one cannot prove for sure the accuracy of one’s answer. Here is the way Mann and Twiss addressed the tree falling issue:

In the 1910 book Physics by Charles Riborg and George Ransom Twiss the question was asked, When a tree falls in a lonely forest, and no animal is nearby to hear it, does it make a sound?⁵

As silly as it may sound, there are many difficult questions in life. Some we will find satisfactory answers to and others that will remain riddles.

Difficult questions often leave us in a quandary

These difficult questions often occur at lofty philosophical levels. They include ones like - How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? But, difficult questions can also occur in everyday life. Some of the questions allow for leisurely contemplation and others need much quicker resolution.

Believe it or not, each year I find the question of whether to leave the snow and cold in New Hampshire and head to a much warmer clime in Florida to be a difficult question. Thus, it is a perfect example of an everyday conundrum which results in much deliberation. Similar unusual and everyday questions can often send us into a state of not knowing how to respond - a quandary.

Or as my retired colleague, Cliff, declared, somewhat factiously,

"If a man says something

and a woman is not around to hear him

is he still wrong?"

The difficult questions about life are difficult because of the effect they have on our mind, body, and spirit. They rattle us. Some of that rattling is superfluous or light-hearted – like even considering trying to answer that angel on a pin question. Other difficult questions merely cause us to hesitate, wonder, or puzzle out in momentary challenging ways. I know this because for thirteen years I have been in a quandary about what to plant in the front area garden. By the way, so far, a lot of pondering and purchase of plants has led to mediocre success. So I remain in a quandary.

But many conundrums and quandaries (questions, puzzlements, and uncertainties) rightfully lead many of us to have to contemplate these things more seriously. We think. Sometimes we think at great length and other times we pause only momentarily. No matter how long we think about things, or how easily that thinking comes to us, we do benefit from not just experiencing life but from thinking about it. Contemplation is an act and a process and is used to help us adjust our focus and stay engaged in life.

2

Mid-Season & Taking Chances

Overview

Each new season has a bit of certainty about it. This makes writing a book that is divided into seasons nice and organized with a slightly linear approach and comforting ring to the endeavor. But mid-season, well that is an entirely different thing.

This is after all describing an event already happening. The beginning is therefore known. The middle is present. And there is an implied future that is still to come. But there is less of the season, in this case, than there was in the beginning. So, one may be tempted to panic if some things are still left undone. If the season is going differently than expected or desired. And one may be bored if all has been completed and there are still hours to fill.

Thus, for every season, one needs to have at least four essentials:

Faith

Trust

Courage

Hope

These essentials are needed throughout each season. Not only needed but needed in good enough if not abundant amounts. And this would be true for those with less than four distinct natural seasons. For indeed faith, trust, courage, and hope are essential for all of living.

But make no mistake I am not necessarily thinking of the artificial systems designated by specific faith (religious groups) or those externals in which we trust (banks, and governments). Rather I am thinking of having an internal one that holds all four elements in working tension internally and provides kind of a beacon or guide to who we are and who we will be.

Rest assured, there is no such thing as completed faith, trust, courage, or hope. Rather they are processes that are sometimes good enough and at other times in need of replenishing. Hopefully one engages in filling up on the four all the time, but midseason is also a good place to gauge where one is, how one is doing, and what will help with increasing our essential ways of being. So let us dive with purpose and enthusiasm into the process of wonderment, reflection, learning and change.

September 4: Everyone needs a window

Riding from the small town of Concord, New Hampshire to the city of Manchester I happened to look out my window to see three wild turkeys just standing there on the side of the road. I was speechless for a second. Then, since I wasn’t driving, I pulled out my small note pad and made a note of the time and place for this viewing. I had yet to start writing If a Tree Falls, but I knew these turkeys were inspirational.

For those who have never seen wild turkeys they look quite different from the ones that are raised for consumption. To begin with they are long, tall, and skinny. Quite awkward looking. No big, beautiful feathers like the humungous Toms that I used to be afraid of in my childhood. And they blend beautifully into the landscape so one needs to have an alert eye to spot one. Plus, to our benefit they seem to travel in groups.

Even my grandson Kevin notices the wild turkeys. One day on the way to picking him up from his house which sits in a heavily wooded area, we noticed a huge flock of them by the side of the road. When we mentioned it to Kevin, he matter of factly stated that they liked to hang out in that spot, and he saw them frequently. A natural event from his point of view. An unusual but welcomed one from mine.

I guess some would ask, what’s the big deal? To those skeptics I would remind all of us that we are a part of nature not different from it. Secondly, we need wild animals and changing vistas to remind us that we are not in control of everything. Third, we need to break up routines and be surprised by novelty to keep our souls nourished and our wonderment active. Convinced? Then I continue with an observation made by my son Jeremiah some years ago.

The day was bright and sunny and the air fresh. Then the rain started to fall. And fall it did for hours. So much so that we turned on the television to see what the weather report had to say. And there it was, the young, trusted weatherman announcing that the days was bright and sunny and would remain so. To this Jeremiah responded, the weather department needs a window.

And isn’t it true we all need ways to see or attend to what is happening in our world. For there in Virginia, a couple of years ago, was the most beautiful sunrise I had ever seen. And it only lasted about two minutes. And there, more years ago, in front of our car in the northern woods, in the dark, stood that huge moose but only for a few seconds.

What better way to be surprised by life then to look out a window? Yet we know that not everyone has one. And even those who do aren’t always interested in using it to really see what is there. And certainly not everyone has something as wonderful as wild turkeys to see when they gaze outward.

Some of us can get so involved with our own inner thoughts, and outer preoccupations, that we miss these little things. But this was not my case today. And hopefully as I pay better attention to life’s experiences, conundrums, quandaries and so on I will see more turkeys and less routine paved roads.

September 6: Focusing on covered Bridges

We were in the opening year of the COVID19 Pandemic,¹ month number nine. Things have been scary for many of us who have been paying attention to health care guidance and concerned about others who were ignoring such wisdom. But we missed people. We missed family. We missed indoor restaurants and shopping. We missed the ability to just get out of the house safely.

We were desperate for something to do. Somewhere to go. And the thought came to us that we could visit covered bridges. And certainly, we knew there would be covered bridges right here in our state of New Hampshire. So, with a little research we discovered that there are 54 of them still standing, or