In the fourth session of the Awakened Action series, Terry Tempest Williams shares the quiet, touching story she “could never write”—the killing of Harvard Divinity School’s beloved 200-year-old red oak in 2019. Sleeping beside the tree the night before its death, she received its transmission: “My absence will be my presence…this is transformation.” Witnessing its four-hour dismantling while grieving her brother’s recent suicide, Terry entered a profound hopelessness. Yet the tree’s prophecy proved true: its absence created space for radical student activism and transformative conversations. Six years later, a woodworker in possession of the tree’s body heard its call: “Take me back to the Divinity School.” Through sincerity and effort the tree returned as a “listening table” for hard conversations, demonstrating that “to bear witness is not a passive act.” Terry beautifully illustrates the tangled web of suffering and transformation, encouraging our quiet and steady hearts to love and persevere
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