Now that the snow has melted away (at least temporarily), our dog Ruby and I have decided to change the route we take on our morning walks. Instead of staying strictly to the paved surface of our two-lane farm country roads, we are venturing off into the surrounding fields.
On our first such venture we passed alongside a cornfield and arrived at a grove of maples trees wearing ugly skirts of white plastic 5-gallon buckets. It is syrup harvesting time in our neighborhood.
In the middle of the grove of maples stood one of the largest trees I had ever seen. It’s massive trunk, which I figure to be 15-20 feet in diameter, is severed some 30 ft. above the ground. Two branches the size of a “normal” maple’s trunk split off to each side of the main trunk at about six feet above ground and reach high up into the sky, where they appear to still bear leaves in season.
This marvelous tree’s deeply rutted bark, gnarled and knotted branches and exposed roots make it look like wisdom incarnate. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that it feels like wisdom incarnate. Upon first sight, I just stopped in my tracks and stared transfixed for several minutes.
This morning I was reading a wonderful book by Stephen Harrod Buhner (Sacred Plant Medicine) and came across this passage:
“I have often felt that the tree holds some special significance for human beings. It is the one plant that has a long tradition of a separate sacred archetype that is found in all religions. When people come upon an ancient tree, some event occurs that takes them out of themselves, and they, for a moment, feel the touch of a greater and much deeper reality.”
I have felt this touch.
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