On a sunrise walk a few days ago, I was inspired to "get close up and personal" with a gorgeous huge, ancient cedar tree that stands on the edge of Dry Creek in the wilderness near our home.
Trees are wonderful beings, are they not?
They breathe with and for us.....we breathe out carbon dioxide, they breathe it in. They breathe out oxygen, we breathe it in. Without them, we could not live or breathe. The earth would become a wasteland. And trees provide us with wood for our houses and fires and many other things we could hardly live without. They are home and food and living space to many other creatures that share our living space with us. They give so much!
As a child, I would swing from trees, climb trees as high as I could go, and sit on the broad limbs of banyan trees and read or just contemplate life around me. Certain trees became precious "secret hiding places" for me. Could not many of you say the same? We owe a lot of love, gratitude, and respect to our tree friends.
That is why, at sunrise on a spring morning last week, I stood before the tree you see in the pictures accompanying this blog, and played my flute in praise of her (I think of her as GrandMother Cedar), and then sat and leaned against her welcoming trunk, and felt her strong support behind and beneath me. I gazed up at her huge spreading limbs---so many of them, I could not count them all. I picked a little spring of cedar needles from a nearby branch, and sat sniffing its marvelous fragrance. My slightly stuffy nose cleared right up, and it seemed I could smell more acutely--the smell of the red earth beneath me, the sage growing nearby, and my dog Leo sitting patiently beside me. I decided to ask Grandmother Cedar if she had some wisdom to share with me. I put aside my own thoughts and became very quiet inside and just listened. This is what I heard:
"I offer you my gifts of strength, clarity, and calm. Receive them and live them, and through them you will bless many who come into the shade of your presence. Be rooted and grounded in Love, as I am. Do not let yourself be moved or disturbed by the passing storms of other's wrong-doing or efforts to use you for their own purposes. Keep growing deeper, growing higher, and branching out in all directions as you age."
Well! That was more than enough to keep me pondering, and challenged!
I invite you to ponder and let yourself be challenged by GrandMother Cedar's wisdom as well. And take time as soon as you can, to go sit by a tree and let it gift you with its qualities and wisdom. Then let your heart fill with gratitude for the gift of trees. And join me in the decision to plant one near where you live sometime soon.
Love live the Trees!
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