Tree Of Life is Finished!

Grouting was hard. Each leaf had pieces that needed to be revealed individually. Some will be forever embedded in the grout because they were too small or flat. But they are there! 
Here are some of the descriptions people gave with the piece they offered:

Broken porcelain from Pt. Isabel Dog Park

Broken eyes glasses, seeing clearly how fragile we are

Vase made by a glass-blower who knew the fragility of her work, but wouldn’t let the vase go as a gift to someone…brokenness

Bits and pieces of the ancient inhabitants of the Mediterranean and North Africa

Unglazed handle is from Ephesus and probably came from the water jug St. Paul used to quench his thirst after he preached to the Ephesians

Curved, triangular grey mottled piece from behind the big cathedral at Marsielle

Little dark-green shard from the grounds of an ancient Moroccan mosque.  Green is a sacred color in Islam.

One of a pair of earrings from my mother

Pieces of love, laughter, happiness

Pieces representing pieces from the broken bowl my mother made- a life-long potter…I eat from her works daily

To be able to put the pieces touched by fear, frustration, impatience, disappointment and putting them together in the moment and speak them in love

A gift from my students

Broken flaming chalice made by a potter friend of the family from Oklahoma

An earring from Grandma Marilyn, the other lots

Pieces of the ocean so dear to us

Beads from Africa

Gem-stones represent gifts of love from our children.  Now they will forever be tokens os love with & for this congregation.

I can’t drink from this anymore; the handle is gone; this is about my not drinking anymore

The treasure of memories, love present, love withdrawn, experience, sadness, all these pieces make us deep and gain understanding

A UUCB church plate rescued from the trash, meals shared here such an important part of our lives

Little deer our daughter thought she couldn’t live without, now it is broken and forgotten, but she lives on happy far away in Mexico…

Here is the tree in situ.

Here is the way it will look, approximately, after the wall is painted.

Tree Of Life

Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley
See more here
and here 

126" x 96"

August 2011