One Body

As Claire McGarry gazes at a perfect cluster of trees, she realizes that real perfection is made up of imperfect things working together as one.

As I sat on the porch of my sister’s home in the mountains of Georgia recently, my gaze fell upon the grouping of trees in her horseshoe driveway. Although the cluster created a perfectly symmetrical fan of lime green leaves, looking closer, I realized none of the trees themselves had that same perfection.

A botanist would have said it was because the trees didn’t have enough room. Each one had to vie for space and sunshine and grew in a shape that gave them both. I saw it differently.

It’s as if each tree saw the need to compromise, ceding space and sunshine to the other trees where they could. They understood that existing as a group was important, and worth the sacrifice for the cluster to thrive.

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Not to get too preachy, but I don’t think this mentality exists much anymore, and society is suffering because of it. The message being pushed is solely focused on the individual: “You do you,” “Live your best life,” and hundreds of other sayings all focused on me, my, and I! What happened to “our”?

We’re all meant to live as one body—supporting each other, compromising for the other’s good. The true definition of love is to die to oneself in order to lift the other up. It’s not to take and do whatever brings fleeting pleasure for oneself.

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We as a society become more life-giving when we look beyond each other’s limitations, nurture each other’s gifts and come together to work as one. #CatholicMom

Those trees outside my sister’s house are all the more beautiful for each and every tree, despite each one’s imperfections. We as a society become more life-giving when we look beyond each other’s limitations, nurture each other’s gifts and come together to work as one.