The Aging Tree and aging me

by LisaJoy

My Sit Spot

Fascinated about this forest I live in, I wanted to know everything the forest could teach me. I love to learn and I’m aware there is a whole galaxy of happenings here.

I decided to become certified in Slyvotherapy, or Forest Therapy, practiced in Japan. One of the first assignments was to find a tree, a special tree you feel in harmony with. On our humble 3 acres we must have 100’s of trees. My first thought was, find the biggest, oldest, tallest tree. That would be mine.

As I surveyed our property, the land is rolling slightly so the trees are not level. One tree that seemed tallest from afar doesn’t look that way when you’re under it.

The assignment was also clear to find a “healthy” tree, if one is sick, it can’t transmit the grounding energy like a healthy tree.

After a long while I found my tree. It’s convenient which I like for winter days, right off my office deck and living right outside my window so I can be with it all day long.

At first, I didn’t like this tree, I mean it’s fine but has several dead branches on the lower trunk. Was it healthy? Continuing my studies I learned the lower branches that have died off did so with grace, so the nutrients could go higher and build the necessary canopy at the top.

Just like my life, I’ve had to allow things to die off to nourish the new growth.

My original branches served me; relationships, family, jobs, habits….

And now, some of them had to die off, never soaking up nutrients again… just so this aging tree can blossom as its branches reach higher everyday toward heaven.

My new morning routine includes time under the tree, in meditation, barefoot. Leaning into the bark and asking, “what do I need to know today?”

Budda found his spiritual awakening under the Bondi Tree. Knowing that,

I feel mine every morning, with nature and my tree.

Find a tree, make it yours, you may even find your story there.