Surprise
Buds, a new beginning, the thrill of spring, on the Anne Frank sapling, Sonoma State University, Sonoma, CA, late February 2019. There are thirteen saplings from Anne Frank’s chestnut tree planted on twelve sites across the United States in addition to all the others now flourishing near and far.
Surprise
76 years ago today, August 4, 1944, Anne Frank and the seven others she was hiding with in the annex of the building that housed her father’s company Pectacon, were discovered, arrested, and began their difficult journey to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. After they were arrested the Germans confiscated everything from the Secret Annex except the pages of Anne’s diary left scattered on the floor.
Surprise
Of the eight who had hidden in the Secret Annex only Anne’s father Otto survived and returned to Amsterdam after the war. Miep Gies, who worked for Otto and was instrumental with a few others in protecting the eight in hiding for over two years, had gathered up Anne’s writing after the Germans left and kept it safe, planning to return it to Anne after the war. Anne, who intended to be a writer when she grew up, died before she was 16 and able to realize that dream. But the diary she wrote, which was read, edited, and first published by her father in the late 1940’s, would indeed establish her as a writer the world would remember.
Surprise
When Otto first read Anne’s work, he had no idea how important the massive white horse chestnut tree adjacent to the building was to Anne. It was visible from an uncovered window high in the attic. She wrote of the tree in her diary: February 1944 — “The two of us looked out at the blue sky, the bare chestnut tree glistening with dew, the seagulls and the other birds glinting with silver as they swooped through the air, and we were so moved and entranced that we couldn’t speak.” “‘As long as this exists,’ I thought, ‘this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?’” May 1944 — “Our chestnut tree is in full bloom. It’s covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year.” Several decades later in a speech, her father would reflect that in the freedom of nature Anne found comfort.
Surprise
The tree would survive Anne for 65 years, living to an age of over 170, one of the oldest chestnut trees in Amsterdam. The tree fell when it was broken apart by a storm in 2010. Since 2005, staff from the Anne Frank House had been gathering chestnuts and germinating them into saplings which were sent locally and around the world. Both the tree’s testimony to the inspiring and healing qualities of the natural world and the next generation of its long life continue in these many scattered locations across the globe. Now when you visit the Anne Frank House and get to the attic at the top of the annex, a shadow of the beloved chestnut tree is projected on the window where it was once a life-giving sight.
Surprise
Take time today or this week to spend time with surprises big and small, in the breadth of creation around you, that bring joy, that give courage, that promise renewed life, that offer freedom beyond the limitations of these days in which we now live.
Peace be with you, Martha