A Message of Love from the Trees

I am looking up at the trunk of a tall tree. I feel the hard bark and solidity through my eyes. Then a vertical slit opens at the base of the trunk. I step through the opening into the tree. Once I am inside, I turn around to face the direction I came from. The bark closes around me, but it is not scary. I am safe in here. It is alive and quiet. I can breathe through the bark. I can see out. I am where I belong. I am standing and I am not alone.       — a dream

We are here with you. Firmly rooted in the deep ground, reaching toward the imperative of the unknown. Standing in harmony, generations of interdependence hiding in plain sight. Unseen helpers, the lungs of the world, exchanging breath with all. Guardians of history, silently witnessing through the ages. Old men and women in shadows and starlight, sustaining life without recognition, resentment, or regret.

We are beings like you, more alike than different. The flowering, the majesty, the splintered trunks of too much life, the rot and decay. The peeling bark of expansion, the kinship with all manner of creatures that call us home, the tangled roots and longing leaves drawing nourishment from earth and sky. Born of purpose, aching with knowing. Yielding to the seasons until we return home as ancestors, woven with yours in the fabric of time.

We have much to teach those willing to give us more than a passing glance. Ground yourself in the earth, the true nourishing mother. Devour light. Meet the world soft and strong, upright in all you do. Know the dignity, joy, and duty of interconnection. Breathe life into every being you encounter. Be wild and wise without compromise. Let your bark protect the truth of who you are. Provide solace and refuge to those whose walk of fear has been too long.

Remember your past is your root, not your destiny, as you soar to the purpose calling you. Bend in the deepest bow of gratitude. Sway when the wind prevails. Allow your ancient wisdom to define each moment. Hold a space of patience and acceptance. Offer your shade to those parched by the hot sun of suffering. Release without fear or struggle, rejoicing as what is no longer needed floats to the grass. Let the moonlight drench your branches and the stars remind you of your place in the family of things. And when your time comes to fall to the ground, remember that life continues, serving life itself.

We are all servants of love, after all. It is all love, after all.

Tell the lost ones who forgot who we are that it is safe to remember. Invite those who look, but don’t see, to new vision. Revel in our dance of dirt and roots and rocks and sunlight and life and death. Come to us for reprieve from the deception and lies you mistakenly take to be your ground. Sit amongst us, listening for the guidance you need right now. Take our medicine in deeply, until it fills your empty places with the wholeness that already exists. Bear your own fruit and offer it like medicine to a weary world.

Just for today, take your place with us, the taller ones. Come in peace to a tree. Tend a tree. Befriend a tree. Smile as the leaves of a tree greet you in the breeze. Sit in wonder in the branches of a tree. Lie down beneath a tree and touch the sky. Plant a tree. Ask a tree to hug you back. Drink the stillness of a tree into your bones. Be a tree, rooted in presence and power, love rising up.

We are talking to you of our secret dreams. See us. Acknowledge us. Respect us. Trust us. Exalt us. Revere us. Love us. Serve us. Protect us like all of our lives depend on it. Because they do.