Sacred Trees

I love trees.  This is not a weak statement.  The sight of trees and their many moods and colors makes a direct path to my heart and solar plexus.  They buoy me up when I am down.  I've looked at trees in a winter landscape, standing tall, bare, stark and all alone on the prairie and am amazed at their strength and endurance to withstand the winds and blizzards; yet still they stand looking magnificent.  I draw courage and hope from those contemplative moments.

When I die, I want to be cremated and have my ashes put into a deep hole with an Oak Tree going in after me.  I've told my dear husband this and he just smiles.  I finally made it clear to him that I am not joking.  Do not put me in a sealed box away from the elements.  I NEED to be with the elements.  After death I will grow on in the tree.  So let's see....a shovel, a tree, a bagpipe player playing all my favorite Celtic songs and my ashes....yup, that will be all I want at my funeral.  Oh!...and it has be an Oak Tree that is Oak Wilt resistant!  :O)  But I digress.....this isn't meant to be morbid or a foreshadow...just the facts.

I am currently taking a class on-line entitled Sacred Trees ~ Sacred Medicine with Gail Faith Edwards.  We've had three sessions so far and I am learning about all the medicine these wonderful creatures have to offer us.  I've always looked at trees with a special affinity but now it is greatly enhanced.

This class got me to thinking about the trees that have been taken down around our area.  Each time a tree comes down I have a pain in my core.  Coming from Iowa, where there aren't nearly as many trees as there are here in Wisconsin, both Dave and I lament about how unconcerned people are about the value of the trees not only to us but the birds and other creatures that depend on those trees.  They are just another thing to be "harvested" here.  Zip...zip and they come crashing down.

One such tree was a huge Oak that "had" to be taken down to make way for road improvement.  When we saw how many of the Oaks in this particular cluster were marked for death, we talked to the neighbor about it (the trees were on his right-of-way).  He was shocked to see how many trees they had marked for unnecessary destruction and had it out with the county and was able to save most of the cluster except for the largest, most majestic Oak.  I was walking down the lane the day the Oak came down.  I heard a terrible, piercing noise coming from the southwest, across the neighbor's pasture (was it the cry of the Oak when the chainsaw cut into its bark???).  I turned just in time to see the Oak crash down into the roadway.  Then an incredible thing happened.  It was as if I could feel wave upon wave of energy from that Oak coming across the field into my solar plexus...it was a palpable feeling.  I felt like the tree was communicating with someone who cared about it.  I was incredibly sad.

Dave went to the county crew and asked what was to be done with the tree. It was going to be ground up into wood chips....(don't get me started).  He asked if it could be dropped off at our place and we could use it for firewood.  They agreed and came with this huge mass of Oak logs that barely fit in their county truck.  They dumped it in an unceremonious manner onto the yard.  I crawled up on the logs and started to count the rings.  This tree had been here since George Washington walked the land.  I took some time of solitude with the tree, grieving with it and finally thanking it for all the warmth it would provide for our family for a very long time.  We are still using that wood and I am grateful to it every time I put another one of its sections in the wood stove.

So call me a sappy (no pun intended) tree-hugger....no apologies from me.  Destruction of our environment in this country is rampant....there is little regard for our Mother Earth and all she provides for us despite our treatment of Her.  This class has put me in touch with people who feel the same as I do and that is refreshing.  I can finally talk about these things without having particular people roll their eyes when I share my feelings.  And....I am thankful for those folks around here who do let me go on and on about my thoughts on such things...(you know who you are and I Thank You!!).

Have a Blessed Day... Oh, and....go out and hug a tree;  the tree will thank you!