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| photo courtesy of Bob Faris |
Many years ago, on sultry Southern day, I met a special
tree. She lived at the end of a gravel road, not far from the sea, her branches
reaching out like welcome arms to me. She was wise and she was calm, weathering
hurricanes and floods, and temperatures that stung like bees. She saw the civil war, felt hate and ugly, fear and anger. She watched the world around her shift
and expand, its people learn and unlearn, their hearts fear and grow…to love.
And she did so over and over and over again, for she kept living, years
and years and years.
And when it hurt oh, so very much, did she ever give up?
Then how did she cope? How did she weather such storms of so many centuries?
She kept living.
She kept reaching out and over, up and through, and growing
more and more into who she was always meant to be. She loved herself. She knew
herself. She grew, herSelf.
And through her faith in her Self she bore fruit. She gave
visitors the gift of solace and shade, an inner peace and an inner strength to
keep growing, to keep looking forward, to keep reaching for the light when
darkness is all the eye can see.
Her name is Angel Oak and she will forever be an angel to
me.
* * *
Some days, life hurts. He forgets. She rolls her eyes. The
car honks or the person on the other end of the phone says just the wrong
thing. An unexpected bill comes, unkind news arrives, the rain falls harder,
and the pain becomes stronger. Some days, the little bit of light in the darkness
is so very hard to see. That’s when I return to nature, to let her heal me.
As winter moves in, a first for me in many years, I am drawn
to the magic of the trees—revealed, naked, bare to their skeleton souls. Seen
as they truly are. They lose almost everything and yet they don’t falter. They
stand tall and have faith. They reach up, toward the light, and reach down,
deeper, into their roots, to the core of who they really are.
* * *
This Thanksgiving, I wish each of you the gift of revealing
to yourSelf who you really are, to be inspired, as I am, by the Gifts of Tree.
Angel Oak, bare branches on a chilly eve, a swaying palm on the edge of your
sea—let nature take you home, soothe the rough edges of your life, and give you
back that Self that is so sacred, so raw and filled with life, that the hurtful
bits peel away. For like the Angel Oak, when we reach with faith, ‘be’ who we
really are, we ooze peace and share an inner knowing that life is good, ohhh,
so very, very good. Yes, as it has always meant to be.
6 comments:
To remove our cloak as the trees do, it is truly liberating. The trees are their own support mechanism. The trees have faith that life returns again just as the cycle deems necessary. Belief requires external support, faith supports itself. Let us all give thanks for all aspects of our lives including the difficult ones. Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks for sharing the angel tree.
Beautiful, heartfelt words...thank you, dear and thoughtful friend. Happy Thanksgiving. I am soo very thankful for you:)
coming here is always a balm dear Brynne
Sweet Jo...that's how I feel about your visits here, too. Thank you, my friend.
It is difficult for me to walk by a tree, without stopping to touch it, to talk to it, to thank it for doing what I can not, shelter those I've never met. Thanks for the reminder my friend. :-)
Someday we will walk in a forest of trees together, my friend. Until then, the trees will smile as we touch them in different parts of the world...and always with love:)
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