I was hanging out in Mother Nature, spending time exploring deep within the acreage of the nearby St. Croix State Park near Hinkley in Minnesota.
It was a gorgeous fall day and I settled down in a peace-filled place along the banks of the Kettle River. I dangled my feet in the water and the following is a true story that happened.
Trees talk to me…
When I go walking in nature, the trees speak in the wind rustling their leaves or the less common squeak-creaking of the wood as it moves against itself. If you’ve heard it, it’s magical.
I smile, acknowledge the connection with gratitude and continue on. Today, it happened in a grove of trees on the other side of the river. The groans were so loud and frequent that it prompted me to have a deeper dialogue.
Me: “Are you trying to get my attention?”
Trees: Short pause, small creak.
Not entirely convinced, I pushed on.
Me: “If you’re talking to me, make the sound again.”
Trees: An immediate large creaking sound.
Typically, I can hear them ‘talking’ as an inner awareness. But, on this day, the trees used the cracking of exterior sound. The truly miraculous thing wsa that there wasn’t enough wind to justify and support the strength of movement.
I know first-hand that all life is sentient with a consciousness of intelligence that can provide proof like this. The magic happens so effortlessly, you don’t even have time to question its wonderous reality.
I was impressed. This is BIG magic. It really made me smile. So, I tuned in even more closely.
Me: “What are you trying to say?”
Trees: “We are the mother trees and we want everyone to know just how disconnected we are from you.”
In the next moment, I was filled with emotional pain.
Wincing, I recoiled and pulled back in a learned resistance.
Pain isn’t fun. Human nature is conditioned to pull back as a learned and instinctual reflex to distance ourselves from discomfort. As we grow, we can evolve past the conditioning. But it takes awareness work.
I was curious. I thought to myself, that this pain must be an uncomfortable burden. Perhaps the avoidance of pain is one of the reasons we stopped being more connected to Nature?
Or was it a byproduct?
I reconnected to see if I could discover an answer.
This time I allowed myself to feel and be with the pain, in a full embrace of it. It’s something I’ve learned to do in my own practice as a seasoned energy healer and facilitator of hundreds of transformational groups over the years.
As the pain progressed, I literally could not distinguish my pain from the trees pain. It was ALL one and the same.
The truth and wisdom in that statement was profound. Was the message for me personally, or the collective ‘we’ of universal connection? Is there a difference?
As humans we’ve created so much pain for ourselves and the planet. We’ve become numb and separated from the natural flow with the nature within; forgotten in the rush to compete in a hectic, harried and modernized world. We are too busy to remember our innate knowing. We exist to survive instead of thrive.
Perhaps the only way to discover the tree wisdom for ourselves, is to open to the message of a painful truth of separation. Embrace the pain of it, let it dissipate and be seen through as a call to return to wholeness.
Mother trees came to me this day to convey that they are here to help us with the effort.
After our talk, I was left with a feeling of deep peace. A peace grounded in freedom to just be.
As a philosophy, the wisdom of trees can teach us life lessons.
Trees are rooted in place for their entire lifespan, hundreds and even thousands of years. Yet, if left alone, they weather changing environments, accepting the things they cannot change, and continuously adapting to thrive. They are collaborative in nature, inherently aware of the interdepencence of everything.
To be rooted in beingness like a tree, is a unifying concept that by helping others, we are essentially helping ourselves, and thus creating a collective community.
The message I received so clearly is: they ARE us. We are them. They share our pain and yearn to reconnect to resolve it.
Connect to them. Listen for the wisdom. Give them your pain if it’s too much. They feel it anyway and can help transform it.
Individually, we may feel the pain of aloneness. But together, we can do anything.
Remember, magic happens when we’re in the flow of connection.
