A Lesson From The Forest

Today, I sat on the back deck of the cabin where I am spending much of my sabbatical time. The cabin is totally enveloped in trees. It is as if it sprang out of the forest floor alongside its natural surroundings.

As I sat there doing nothing save watching the trees, a welcomed light breeze interrupted the abject stillness of the hot, humid summer day. The trees suddenly came alive as they began to dance in the wind. I sat transfixed as I marveled at how they, some of them 100 feet or more tall, swayed with such grace and ease. Many of them with long bare trunks reaching to the sky, branching out with a spray of green at their extremities like colossal hydrangeas flowering far above my reach. I watched as they moved in rhythm as if expertly choreographed.

I wondered if one or more would snap under the pressure as the wind grew in intensity, a precursor to the approaching rainstorm. Then, I remembered the root systems that expand deep into the earth beneath. Root systems that extend far beyond the base of the tree to anchor it and to seek out and absorb water and nutrients that sustain and support it.

I let myself imagine the interconnected network of roots from hundreds of trees and other plants that share this small section of the Earth’s ecosystem. I was awestruck as I pondered the immensity of what lies beneath what I could observe.

Right where I was sitting, I could see trees of all shapes, sizes, and shades of green coexisting with many varieties of shrubs, ferns, grasses, vines, and mosses. While they appeared separate and apart from each other on the surface, I knew that they are all part of a mutually supportive system that binds them together as one and from which they co-create a peaceful and inviting sanctuary for all manner of reptiles, insects, arachnids, and animals, including us humans.

It was a beautiful and present reminder of how we can learn from nature. We, too, appear to be separate and apart from each other. We show up in all shapes, sizes, and colors. We each express in our own unique and special ways. Yet, beneath all that we see as our differences, we are connected by a network of energy that exists beyond what we can typically observe with our physical senses. We must allow ourselves to go deeper, to sense beneath what we can see or hear so that we realize our unity in our diversity.

It is vitally important that we take time to ground ourselves, to anchor ourselves in the awareness of the Life Energy that lives and moves and has its being as each of us. Since we don’t have physical roots like trees, we must establish energetic roots through the practice of meditation, prayer, and contemplation. Through these practices, we establish conscious connection with our Source and strengthen our connections with each other and the natural world. We draw sustenance and strength from these connections.

Conscious breathwork is another practice that can help to reinforce our conscious connection to Source. I invite you into the following practice:

Take a deep breath and imagine that the breath extends all the way down through the bottom of your feet connecting you to the center of the Earth.

On the exhale, imagine drawing energy from the core of the planet up through the bottom of your feet, through your heart and out the top of your head.

On the next inhale, visualize breathing all the way out the top of your head connecting you with Cosmic Christ energy.

On the exhale, draw that energy down through the top of your head, into your heart, and through the bottom of your feet.

Take a few more conscious breaths and imagine that you are in the constant flow of Earth and Cosmic Christ energy.

You are a connecting point between Heaven and Earth.

We are here to co-create eco-, bio-, socio-, psycho-, and political systems that are interconnected and mutually supportive for all humanity, as well as for our Mother Earth and all the life she sustains. 

As more of us engage in practices that help us consciously connect with the Life Energy from which we are born and in which we co-exist, we will more fully bring that consciousness to bear in all the systems that we create. Nature can serve as our example of living in harmony, peaceful cooperation, and mutual support.