A tree gives glory to God, wrote Thomas Merton, first of all by  being a tree. For in being what God means it to be, it is imitating an idea which is in God and which is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree.

The more it is like itself, the more it is like him. No two trees are alike, no two people are alike, and our individuality is no imperfection. On the contrary,  the perfection of each created thing lies in its own individual identity. Therefore, writes Merton, each particular being, in its individuality, its concrete nature and entity, with all of its own characteristics and private qualities, gives glory to life and to the very idea of God.

But putting God aside (which i often do when reading Merton), what about you? What about me?

We are different, I think, from the trees and most things in nature, because we can think. We have a conscience. We can always be better, even if we often are not. We can always face the truth about ourselves. It is not enough for us to be individual men and women, the news reminds us of this every day. For us, holiness is more than humanity.

Holiness, said Merton, means being ourselves. To be sacred, we  must found out who we are and of discovering our true selves.

I believe this is where creativity comes in, for in freeing our inner lights and following our adventure, in writing and painting and sewing and feeling, we found out who we are and we discover our true selves. That is what sanctity can mean for me, whether I believe in Merton’s God or not.

Merton believed that every one of us is shadowed by a false self, an illusory person. He or she hovers and dances around us all of our lives, taunting us and daring us to give in to fear, to live the lives of others, to give up on our adventures, and live the substitute lives of the hollow men.

Every tree is itself, they all inspire me to do the same.