I sit with my back against a tree and I feel the energy rise within me. I feel the connection flow, embraced by this majestic being. That inspires me and empowers me.
Trees provide me with medicine, simply being in their presence is enough to bring on healing. Then there are the leaves and fruits or nuts that bring nourishment and medicine into my body.
I live surrounded by olive trees. Whose leaves, when infused on water, aid the lungs. The branches bring me and my girls shade and the fruit, I harvest to be milled into oil, which we consume daily.
I have used the wood to heat my home and to decorate it. I am forever grateful for the beautiful Olive Tree and in return, I prune them and keep them watered.
This is a part of my life that I love, the relationship that I have with the natural world, that I have with the trees.
The trees, that are the lungs of the earth, breathing out oxygen into the atmosphere. We can not survive without them.
They also signal the passing of the seasons, keeping us intune and connected. For once you understand the natural cycle of each tree, you can learn to identify the season. You can also turn to them for guidance. By Observing how they respond to the changing climate, as we move through the year.
That observation can also really teach us how to nurture ourselves. Becoming aware of when to direct our energy inwards, just as the sap of the trees travel to the roots and then when to focus our energy on creating new shoots.
For nature is our greatest teacher and the trees are at the forefront of our education.
Trees are an intrinsic part of our lives, from a very practical level, to a very spiritual one.
Within Ireland, trees were planted on the burial grounds of the deceased, so that the spirit of those that had died, could live on within the tree. Co existing with the Dryad, the tree spirit.
The Ogham, is an old Celtic alphabet, where each symbol, that was written or carved, represented a letter and each of those letters also represented a tree. This alphabet was also used as a calendar, encouraging those to connect with their birth tree for insight and guidance.
Trees play such a huge part in all of your lives and yet, we are facing the destruction of our forests. How did we reach such a place of disconnect? where we are destroying the very thing that is keeping us alive, that is enriching our lives in so many ways.
Yes we may need to cut down some trees, but not at this current rate. There are alternatives. We could be planting hemp for example, for use to make paper.
We should be protecting the old growth forests, we should be honouring them. When humans are crammed together into spaces, where there are no trees, what happens then? Think about it.
Think about the affect of sitting with your back against a tree, the affect of being surrounded by them and then think about the affect of being surrounded by a concrete jungle.
In which environment, would we thrive?
