I have started a daily ritual of taking my concerns, and worries, wrapping them into a bundle and placing them at the roots of a grand tree. I either do this on my walks in the woods, or in my mind's eye. Sometimes my bundle is given to a beech, sometimes a sugar maple or majestic oak as these are the oldest and largest trees around here. I imagine in other parts of the world, the tree of choice may be a different yet sturdy elder: the amazing tulip tree, willow oaks, or magnolias, or the grand southern cypress trees. What do you lean on in need? I imagine the answers are as diverse as the creative expressions are of human and tree beings.
To whomever draws me first, I gladly relinquish this bundle of thoughts. I deliberately place it at the base of the tree. As I deposit it, I feel an immediate lessening of the inner chatter. I sense that the tree has absorbed it. Sometimes, I feel it bringing the concerns down into its roots for processing and then letting the transformed contents flow up its trunk like the sap that nourishes its limbs, raining blessings in return. Sometimes, I sense it holding the contents for future compost. The various sense may depend on the contents of the bundle. Or perhaps, it depends on my relationship to the bundle. This detail is not clear to me. Or maybe it is all about timing.
The process of surrender, as well as the process of inner transformation occurring in the tree, both feel critical to the resulting sense of resolution that I experience. Sensing it transform to a new vibration within the tree creates relief within me. Through this internal vision, I feel re-assured that the tree has handled the concerns with far more inspiration and love than I could. I was holding on so tightly and with so much mental focus that there was no room for creative resolution, or grace; it took the love of the tree to perform the alchemy I could not. Love, breath, trust all create that alchemy of resolution.
And imagining it as a chemical process much like transforming carbon dioxide into oxygen also adds to the release for me. The trees are already daily performing an alchemical gift to the world. The metaphysical one of transforming our cares into a vibration and breath of life is no different. A miracle yes, and offered with love.
I try it now, taking the concern for a friend's well-being and lay it at my maple friend's roots. I see in my inner eye that fear of the unknown, absorb deep into the tree's trunk and roots. In moments it is then transformed in some internal cellular process before proceeding up its trunk with its sap and joy. Once in its limbs, the tree exhales its life-giving force to the world and cosmos. A new vibration. What once was fear is transformed into life-giving energy.
The trees don't mind this process of creating more life and offering better solutions.
A smiles returns to me, and I know my heart to be lighter and the answers more conceivable. WIth some of my fears gone I have more room and energy for creative solutions for creative options in the rest of my day. The visit with the trees allows for more room to breath in my world.
