Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a workshop presented by George Ella Lyon. I'm still digesting the material (perhaps more on the writing and discussion later). In the morning she shared a book called The Wisdom of Trees: Mysteries, Magic, and Medicine by Jane Gifford, which is based around the Celtic Ogham Alphabet and which attributes a tree to each moon of the year (a tree zodiac, if you will).After the workshop, I did some brief searches about this intriguing idea. Here and here are two links that provide additional information. My point is not to focus on whether the Celtic tree calendar is based in truth or myth, but rather to consider the power of trees and our connection to them. My birth tree is the hawthorn, and there just happens to be one in my front yard. For the last two years a mockingbird has nested there. The hawthorn offers small white flowers in May and red, berry-like fruit through the winter.
I'm trying to figure out what is so special about a tree, aside from the obvious--that it gives food, shelter, oxygen--and I think, for me, it might be its physical presence, how it is rooted in the earth, grounded, sturdy, and at the same time reaching skyward, growing up and out, claiming the surrounding space. It is a model for how I'd like to live my life, connected to the past while being fully present in this moment.
2 comments:
I love your post on the Hawthorn, and I love those trees...maybe now I know why. I have always wanted one in the back-yard for some odd reason.
I have always thought of trees as people.
There is a tree in our back-yard that I sometimes do yoga next to, and one time, I felt so connected to the tree when I was done. Meditating next to it is nice too. Recently, my husband and I were dismayed to learn that this is one of those trees that leaves huge piles of seed pods in the yard. Even though we have lived at the house for a few years now, it has only just started to drop a few.
I get the feeling the tree is quite pleased with itself.
Trees as people, and people as trees. I will have to try yoga in my backyard when it's warmer, or at least meditation.
Your tree is producing! Perhaps its pleasure is how we feel after finishing a poem or painting.
Post a Comment