When the Tree Spoke to Me ... and what it taught me about life.

My time has come 

There is a park nearby where I live. I go there a few times a week, mostly alone, sometimes with my dog. I usually go there just to clear my mind, or deeply think about certain things.

There is a grove of pines within the park and among it some benches. I go and sit on the bench and I meditate. Sometimes I will close my eyes and just listen to the pines swaying in the wind.

My dog loves chasing small animals and deer, so when I want to think about something carefully, I go by myself. One such day, when I had a lot on my mind I decided to visit this park alone.

I decided to explore parts of the woods which I hadn’t been to before. I ventured deeper without caring how far I am going. The trail is straightforward, so the risk of getting lost is low.

As I walked and pondered the particular problem I was dealing with that day, which I can’t remember now, a sense of calm came over me. There was no one in the park. It was mid afternoon, and clouds occasionally let the sun shine.

When there is no company, one can truly get away.

I felt alone and strangely, it felt oddly right.

You know the word alone is a combination of two words.

All and one.

When all is one, one is alone.

And such was the feeling of aloneness that day. It came with a sense of connection I felt with the woods.

As I walked a few paces further, a garden snake slithered by. It crossed my path and found its way under some old fallen tree. I wondered how it perfectly centered between two mushrooms growing around the mossy undergrowth.

I took a deep breath and exhaled. 

I let the forest find me.

Every step was consciously placed. My pace was slow. The mind began to allow the birds, the cicadas, and the rustling of the leaves in.

Eyes, Ears, and Skin fully awake feeling everything there was to be felt.

Thoughts disappeared in the distant background.

As I walked, I came across a strange looking cottonwood tree.

It was actually two trees, conjoined at the base, and had grown together like twins in a large V shaped bough.

Their width was about 5 feet in diameter each. They were about 120 feet tall.

As I approached them a familiar feeling overcame me.

The same feeling I had when I visited the RedWoods and the Sequoias in the Sierra Nevada range in California.

A feeling that I was in the company of ancient giants.

The passage of time and memory is the first thing you feel when you see the 2000 year old Sequoia trees.

These were no Sequoias, but they were old too. And this tree was in my neck of the woods. I felt connected to it.

I have always felt connected to trees and as such without thinking I put my hand on the rough, jagged bark and closed my eyes.

The grooves were so far apart in the bark, that I could wiggle my fingers between the ridges, and feel almost as if the bark itself was holding my hand back.

I tried to feel how old the tree was. How deep, far and wide its roots stretched,

At least a 25 foot circumference where we stood, and 10 feet deep, I thought.

Then I looked up at its tallest branches, and I saw how enormous the tree actually was.

Such silence, such peace, alone in the woods.

What more could I ask for?

A few mins passed as I stood there with my eyes closed.

And then the words appeared. 

“I’m dying.”

I immediately opened my eyes, and looked up at the tree again.  The green branches swayed way up in the sky in quiet harmony with the wind.

No one had spoken.

I must be imagining things.

Then again the words appeared.

“I am dying. And I will be dead the next time you come here. But don’t worry about me.”

“I am not worried about you”, I found myself talking back. Almost annoyed that my thoughts could be read by a tree.

But how could a tree be talking?

I decided to humor myself and see what the tree wanted to tell me. Because, why not?

There is no one here. I am alone. And I was talking inside my mind, not openly anyway.

I let my guard down. I let the forest find me.

“I am dying because my time has come. I have lived for more than 200 years. I am the largest tree here. But my time has come, and I want to give all I have back to my brothers and sisters who stand by me.”

“Why do you want to give away what you have?”

“Because I need very little to live. I have been a home to hundreds of birds and animals. I have seen generations of blue jays, sparrows, ravens, owls, woodpeckers nest in me. I didn't mind the occasional racoon either. I loved them all. And now I must give it all away.”

“Maybe you can live longer. You are still mighty strong for any tree I can see here.”

“What you see outside is not who I have become inside. I am hollowed out. My days are numbered. And I am ready.”

“What can I do to save you? Is it even possible for me to save you?”

“No. You cannot save me. But you can do something for me.”

“What is it?”

“Go when your time has come and when you do, give all of what you have back to where it came from.”

“You mean pass it on?”

“The way it was passed on to you. Yes. Give it away. Everything I did was not for me, it was for the ones coming after me. I am a part of this forest. I am one with it. I am alone now in my death, as my time has come.”

“Alone means…all is one. And you are not alone. I am here with you.”

“I am not a separate entity from the forest. I am the forest itself. When I go, the forest will have me. And you are not separate either. When you go, the forest will have you too.”

“I hope you live. I want you to live. You are incredibly beautiful. How magnificent you are.”, I looked up again at the immensity of this tree, feeling a sense of anguish and wonder.

“Beauty belongs to things which can die. Objects that you and your kind make have no beauty, because they last forever.”

I rolled up the re-cycled plastic bag I carried in my pocket. I always carry a spare to pick up after my dog. 

“You’re right. Things we make aren’t beautiful.”

“And I am beautiful, in life as I am in death. You watch me. When I die, I will be more beautiful than ever. And I will leave behind something, even you can take home.”

I wiped my eyes and turned back to go home.

It would be 3 or 4 months when I would pass by this stretch of the woods again.

The next time I was here, it was with my dog and my son.

As I walked past this place, a strange feeling overcame me.

“Goodness, where's that massive cottonwood?”, I wondered.

Then I turned around and saw my son poking a stick at something.

A large hole in the ground, and turned over earth.

And within it a large slug crawled on a mat of moss growing around the roots of a large dead tree.

“Look dad, a snail”, said my son, poking it gently with his stick.

I couldn't help but remember the time this tree spoke to me.

Parts of it were cut by the park maintenance and left behind.

Those parts which were left behind already were taken over by the mushrooms, pines, ash, and other small cottonwood saplings growing around it.

“You are beautiful even in death”, I thought and continued on our path.

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Do you believe that trees actually speak to us? 

(let me know by replying)

Or is it that when our intuition awakens, we can see things through subconscious visions?

This is my hope for everyone who reads these words, that may there be that Awakening of that Intuition, which comes with a vision to see.

I believe that everything we do in our community, with the webinars and the modules, leads up to this - Awakening of our Inner Vision, our Intuition.