More Than Trees

I remember swinging by my knees from a low branch of our copper beech—the view peculiar upside down; my mother’s next-door best friend moving because in their extra lot a hurricane had downed nearly all of the old, New England trees, leaving only a gaping absence; feeling moved by a weeping willow's grace over a small brook in a park where I took our daughters; finding peace driving by miles of stunted scrub oaks on the Mid-Cape Highway—all my life affected by trees.

                        AUGUST

Maple leaves wilt

to plastic wrap

in the tent of heat

pitched over the day.

Hidden cicadas buzz

like the back doorbell

under the thumb

of a neighbor’s child.

Beneath a tree-umbrella,

a girl rides a raft

of roots, dirt-cool,

idly rubbing the bark.*

Counseling, I listened to a client’s story in the image of a tree. What was the root cause for discomfort? By intuition I knew that what was thought to be the problem usually was not. The view that another person’s being different would be the solution seemed like cutting off a tree’s leaves one by one without results. Rather, I offered each a spiritual way of seeing by facing a transformation within (removing the root).

Paul Ferrini, channeling, writes, “If you want to understand the unconditional, look at the tree moving in the wind….The tree has deep roots and wide branches. It is fixed below, flexible above. It is a symbol of strength and surrender. You can develop the same strength of character by moving flexibly with all the situations in your life. Stand tall and be rooted in the moment. Know your needs, but allow them to be met as life knows how. Do not insist that your needs be met in a certain way. If you do, you will offer unnecessary resistance. The trunk of the tree snaps when it tries to stand against the wind.”*

Here, I look out and see a tree from every window, each my height when planted but now several taller than the roof. I’ve watched their branches whipped by monsoon rains, but they’ve withstood—reminders that they are more than trees.

My realization is, “Each of us may discover what our metaphor is that takes us beyond the knowledge of a thing to a deeper meaning.”

* used by Permission of Paul Ferrini (www.paulferrini.com).
* published in My Father’s Tomatoes Chapbook 1, 1993.