It had felt like a very long time since I’d been dropped onto this lawn by the cold fall winds. The snow that’s been my blanket all this time is melting, the water nudging me down below the earth. I can feel my first roots starting to reach down to Mother Gaia. The roots will hold me firmly in the ground. Growing longer and stronger downward as I grow upward.
I’ve been feeling the warmth of the sun on the earth above me. The energy and warmth it brings me has me wanting to stretch up to meet it, to reach out for more of the warmth and the life giving rays of the sun. I’ll be able to break through the earth to begin my life above ground.
The day arrives, I feel my tender leaves push up past the earth and reach toward the light above. There is so much to take in as the days pass my height increases showing me more of the world I will be living in. Instead of the complete darkness I started in, I now experience both daylight and night, the sun and the moon. Instead of falling snow, there is falling rain.
The wind around me can be as light as a whisper one day and almost flatten me the next. As I grow above the ground, my roots spread out, holding me firmly no matter how hard the wind blows. The falling rain soaks into the earth and nourishes the roots. We’re connected above as below.
I see the grass around me grow and then the man from the house I’m standing in front of cuts it. He never cuts me though. He makes sure I’m safe and able to continue growing.
One night I hear a lot of excited noise coming from the house. I see the car leave in a hurry. All is quiet for a few days then I see the man and woman arrive together. She gets out of the car carrying a carefully wrapped bundle in her arms. She carries it so proudly. A woman from a neighbouring home meets them on their grass. There’s excited sounds from them.
I hear the lady introduce the bundle as their daughter, Minerva. I hear the name and feel mother gaia softly welcoming this little human to the world. I know then she and I have a connectedness, each in our own way. Her and I are both small and fragile, depending on the kindness of others to survive. We both are being lovingly cared for so we can grow and be who we are meant to be.
I continue to grow, my roots spreading out below, my leaves and branches growing stronger and spreading out. The sun and soil nurtures me into growth. Minerva’s parents watch over her and care for her. In her early days I would hear her crying inside and then there would be quiet time. Her mother would bring her outside on sunny days, and let me provide shade for her as she breathed the fresh air.
One day, I saw her mother holding her as Minerva started to walk on her own legs. Her little body unsure but growing stronger every day. I heard words start to come from her lips. One day I feel her little arms around my trunk and I hear her mother say, “that’s an oak tree”. I finally knew my name. Minerva said “love oak tree” her arms still around me. I sent my thoughts of love to her.
As the years passed, my foliage spread out as Minerva grew and developed. I watched over her when she would play in the yard alone or with her many noisy friends. The would play until Minerva’s mother brought out food and drinks. Then they would sit around under me and consume the food. Minerva always sat leaning back against me, I’d share my energy with her.
She grew into her teenage years. She would often come to sit under my foliage to read, or write in her diary. I would hear her thoughts as she read and wrote. I heard her joys and sorrows, her fears and triumphs over them. I sometimes felt her tears fall against my trunk when she’d rest her head against me and let her tears flow. They had a salty feel to them, that was okay. I was present for her and would never tell her secrets.
I felt for the storms she fought from within herself as she grew older. I experienced strong harsh storms from outside as I grew larger. The winds that would make me sway in my younger days, threatened to break me as I grew larger. They sometimes did break my branches off. I’d grow more of them. Minerva grew stronger with every storm she weathered, just as I would renew my branches. Life can be like that.
Gradually, the visitors to Minerva started to include boys. I could feel the strong intentions between them as they explored their feelings for each other. I would hear Minerva sharing her hopes and dreams with them. The day was coming when she would not be physically with me every day but I knew I still felt a connection to her even when she wasn’t present. She and I were connected through energy that even she wasn’t aware of.
One day, I felt Minerva leaning back against me. There was a new energy coming from her that day, a love so wide it almost encircled me. It wasn’t about me though, it was about the young man, Kirk who had been seeing her for some time now. I waited to learn what this new energy was about. Her mother joined her under the tree and Minerva talked to her so excitedly.
Kirk had asked her to marry him. It wouldn’t be for a couple of years, when she would be 20 years of age. They both had studies to attend to, they needed to save for their first home and many other things they wanted to do together to prepare for their future together sharing their own unique gifts as one.
Well, dear reader, you may find it hard to believe, but all that lives shares an energetic connection with each other. I can feel my connections as surely as I take nourishment from the soil that nourishes my roots and the sun that nourishes the rest of me.
Humans get too caught up in their sense of uniqueness in the world and loose awareness of how connected we are. Our journeys intertwine, now and forever. I, oak tree, will carry that awareness even if Minerva forgets the childlike connection she had to me as she and I grew up together.
Shadowspub writes on a variety of subjects as she pursues her passion for learning. She also writes on other platforms and enjoys creating books you use like journals, notebooks, coloring books etc.
NOTE: unless otherwise stated, all images are the author’s.
Some of the image work may have been done in Midjourney for which I hold a licence to use the imges commercially.
How to Connect With ShadowsPub:
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Twitter: @shadowspub wqq
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