Most people understand that trees are alive. Some people understand that they are beings. Few people will welcome in the understanding that trees operate on their own time lines, with the own agenda, and that YES, they can move and migrate - and I am not talking about birds eating seeds and then pooping them out someplace and under the right conditions, a seedling sprouts up in that exact place. This absolutely does happen.....and I am referring to something quite different here. It is best, as most things seem to be, if I share this through story. The art of storytelling is a form of poetry and passing down information that sticks in a very different way than facts and figures. It has relation and relevance, and something to connect to, that gives it it's glue that is sticky enough to adhere, but also fluid enough to flow out into the world - which is what stories were meant to do. (and yes, I am always a bit romantic about these things, and why not? The world could use a bit more romance and emotion and connection.)
So here is my little story........
A friend of mine offered me hawthorn berries to harvest from his trees recently. Hawthorn is my absolute favorite herb. Always has been . There is something incredibly special about Hawthorn and the more I learn about it, the more in awe I am. While in conversation, I was offered to come and transplant a Hawthorn tree from his property to ours. I consulted with a friend on this, and the best way to do it. I am still sitting with it and will have a conversation with the Hawthorn trees to see if someone does want to move over to my little piece of land. I was thrilled and excited and am looking forward to sharing my land with Hawthorn and inviting it's particular kind of magic to live here.
The next day, after one of Sean's classes where he mentioned Redwood medicine, I thought....how strange that I had never thought about Redwood Medicine. This is my absolute favorite tree. I grew up in California and spent a great deal of time amongst the Redwood forests in the Santa Cruz mountains. This is a space that has always felt like home. I believe redwood is so powerful and has such a resonance that anyone that has been in the presence of a redwood is forever changed. This first occurred to me when people would mention redwood. I knew in an instant by something that I couldn't quite put a finger on, but what was carried forth when the spoke the word "redwood", whether or not they had been in their presence before. Something else came through. I had put out a call /request on social media for anyone that had a deep connection to redwood, to please send me some needles and bark from fallen branches to work with. What I received back was something completely unexpected. I had reached out to one friend in particular, who I know has a deep and loving connection to one particular redwood on his property. I asked him if he would be willing to send me some needles and branches, and explained why I was asking him. We got into conversation about redwoods and our love for them. He offered to send me a small redwood tree that was cloned from his mother tree, of 42 years of age and 75 feet of height! I was delighted and thrilled and immediately wrote to two friends and colleagues, who understand how magical it is to have my two favorite trees, that I have deep connections with, offered to me in a 24 hour time period. One of the friends shared that this was planting seedlings.....this was nourishing and tending to something that would be here long after I was gone. I completely agreed. The other friend concurred and also offered something different. He posed how curious it was that Redwood was stretching its branches to migrate to a different location. And I thought.....YES......and this is one way that trees move. And is it the tree? Is it me? Is it the whole big shebang of the grand array of the universe and its workings which the mere human can never fully understand but can only accept and trust?
Probably all of those things.
This one experience opened up a whole wide doorway to consider trees as beings with a far different timeline than humans have.......and how that is incredibly curious and. humbling.......and then recalibrates all that I thought I knew once again leaving me in that watery liminal space of awe.
And the wheel turns.
Below is the California Coastal Redwood tree that has traveled all the way to Maine.
West meets East....or something like that.
