To Hug a Tree

  “Don’t let our past two thousand years of recorded “history of civilization” be what guides you. Let your inner Knowing at this incredibly important time in history be what guides you. If you are receiving the intuition to go outside and hug a tree, then do so. Communion awaits you. Healing can happen here. An exchange beyond words or thoughts or understanding. Let the Natural world, not the Man-Made world, guide you now.”

A month ago now, I began to receive “impressions” of many things that at first didn’t make much “logical” sense. I think the moment in time we’ve shifted into is one that has little or nothing to do with Logic, but Intuition. Perhaps it’s Life’s way of bringing balance again to what has become a very unbalanced human being, depending solely on Mind and neverminding Soul. In my upcoming blog entries I will share each of the strong messages from Life I’m receiving with the knowing that whomever finds this blog is also receiving these messages – and my hope is that you, too, will follow and find your Truth; Our Truth, and share it with others as we continue to ignite and awaken one another and take our rightful, intelligent, informed place on this planet.

In this blog, I want to emphasize the importance of Nature. I want to demystify and simplify what was given to us:  this precious planet that is a living, breathing, sentient being. We do not have to practice Shamanism in order to know this. We do not have to be a Woman to know this. We do not have to be American Indian to know this. We do not have to drop everything and go live in the mountains to know this. Nature is our nature. We are as a finger to the hand of the Mother Earth, and yet we have been told for eons now, that we are somehow alien, living “on top” of the earth, fending and fighting off creatures and almost always at odds with one of our brothers or sisters, be it snake or spider, tiger or sacred, life-giving tree.

This weekend we ended a wonderful workshop held in our own home, and it was an exquisite five days together filled with the awe and grace that happens whenever a human being feels truly seen, heard, and has their divinity radiantly and sparklingly reflected back to them by others who have realized their own true essence.

On the last afternoon as the participants went on a small field trip together, I stayed back to prepare lunch, but soon realized that I was extremely tired physically, although my spirit was soaring. Following my ever-deepening commitment to tune in and follow exactly what is next needed for this body, mind, and spirit I was drawn to go outside and lie down in a lounge chair on our back porch to receive rejuvenation by Nature. The message was as real and as clear as words spoken by a close friend.  I lightly noted that my old way would have been to push my body further with some form of physical exercise, or a project that my mind decided was more important than finding those ways to stay full to overflowing with lifeforce that I might be powerfully present for any person or any circumstance. Yes, the old way – the old paradigm – would have convinced me that vacuuming one more room was more important than, for example, being centered and balanced enough to hold a loved one in a time of grief, or have the presence of mind to simply listen to a friend, giving no counsel or guidance, but indeed giving them the gift and dignity of bearing witness to their journey as they come into their own Knowing.

I chose a place in the sunlight, and lie listening to the insects humming, sometimes letting my eyes come to rest on the green, and the breeze moving through the leaves of the trees, or sometimes letting the white noise of the neighborhood sounds find me. Not “doing” anything, I continued to let the Natural world bathe my body, completely free from phones and laptops, stereo/television units, the refrigerator hum, and the ticking of clocks, and all man-made devices that I’ve been told are somehow supposed to bring me the communion and connection I have longed for all of my life. The more I listened, the more capable I was of hearing the birds. And it wasn’t difficult to also become aware of a crow, very nearby.  He began to caw,  and I realized that he did so each time I was being “impressed” with a new insight. And the words, “Of course,” wafted through my mind.

Of course Life speaks to us in this way, echoing our intuition and deeper truths! The natural world is Life, language-ing to us Who We Are. How else could it speak to us if not through bird call or a sudden scented breeze?  We are connected to the All of Life, and we are as much a part of the Crow and the Tree’s reality as they are ours. And so We grow together. We live together. We love together. We celebrate the presence of one another to appreciate and to acknowledge the life-path as we experience this Great Mystery – together.

As I moved in and out of various states of mind-stillness, the crow began to caw more frequently, floating to and fro nearby. I opened my eyes and as I did so, it came gliding into view, stopped in mid-air, folded its wings, pulled its slackened and softly curled claws into its body and began to drop, straight down through the soft, blue sky. When I thought it could fall no further  it unfurled its glistening wings like a parachute, caught the warm thermal rising off of the hillside and floated easily up into the air and away, a master of freefall, as well as flight.

Perhaps its Life’s way of bringing balance again to what has become a very unbalanced human being, one depending solely on Mind and neverminding Soul.

Nature speaks to us, all of the time, and it invites us to enter into it, like a lover. What I understand increasingly about nature is that is has always been here, ready to be seen and appreciated and celebrated and loved and equally ready to see us, and appreciate us, and celebrate us, and love us. No one ever told it the fallacy of Separation. This is why Butterfly still lands on our arm, or Dragonfly pauses mid-flight to peer into our eyes, or why Deer will stand no further than 15 feet away and observe us –  if it hasn’t yet been shown that it should fear us.  A seedling floats by on the breeze at the moment you are wondering if you will ever dream a new dream again. A leaf flutters down in front of you on the hiking path, or on the busy street, just as you finally acknowledge an important grief, and you sense that it’s okay for life to have endings, and to make way for new beginnings. The sun comes out and warms you, just as you decide that you are indeed worthy of Love, and of Connection, and of Taking Your Rightful Place in the Order of the Universe. You are never alone. You have Life.

As a child, no one had to teach that Ladybugs seemed magical, or invite us to climb a tree and sit in it for hours, or tell us how exquisite it feels to make mudpies or sandcastles or run through the garden rows with the cool soil snug between our toes or show us how to peer into the face of a Sunflower and then tell us what “beautiful” means. We have always known our place in the natural world. And you can trust that Life is always speaking to you, and you can hear it more deeply especially when you speak to it. When you open that sacred portal with intention and with awareness, you enter into a universe full of radiance and light brighter and warmer than you’ve ever known, although it is your own self you are experiencing, only in a different form.  If I were to ask ten people if they had a feeling of separation or inclusion come over them while observing a sunset or sunrise, I have a hunch that ten out of ten people would say that they feel an ease and an obviousness of inclusion. Of Oneness.

Don’t let our past two thousand years of recorded “history of civilization” be what guides you. Let your inner Knowing at this important, pivotal, may I say dire, time in history be what guides you. If you are receiving the guidance to go outside and hug a tree, then do so.  For all you know, your life may depend on it, and you are being strongly guided into your healing. When you have the courage to “hug a tree” you acknowledge that you are also the sentient being we call “tree”, and you acknowledge that you are also the sentient being we call “crow”, and just as you stand under the sky at night to revel in the full moon, or the stars, so too, does life revel in your own light-display. It can be no other way – Life’s Language is this Natural World, and so learn to listen to that language and in doing so, you will hear your own soul. You will rediscover your Soul Language and you will remember Who You Are and Why You Came and what great, good work you are a part of: The Masterpiece of Life, Life-ing.

When you lie on the ground, or walk barefoot, or hold your palms to the sky and summon starlight to move through the crown of your head through your body into the earth you are grounding the Light of galaxies into your Being. Healing happens. There is a message for you, and an exchange beyond words or thoughts or understanding. Let the Natural World, not the Man-Made world guide you now.  THIS is the new reality.  There has been an unnatural power structure  in place for hundreds of years that knew if each person in society were to use their own internal guidance system – Intuition – in harmony with their external guidance system – Nature – it would have been impossible to “keep people in line”.  And in fact, if we would have been allowed to stay in touch with our own True Nature from the outset, it would have been impossible for someone to be out of line – to harm another person, or creature, or the Mother Earth, in any way.

I realize that many people don’t have immediate access to the Natural world. Choose one, living being in your home or in your neighborhood, or in the local park. Tend to it. Speak to it. Listen to it. Enter into Communion with it, and you will have every answer to every question you could possibly pose to the universe, or to the god of your understanding, because in fact it is all one and the same. Let the Natural world, which is only an “outpicturing” of You, show you how to live again in harmony with all beings. And then share that good medicine with those around you, and Awaken them.

To Make Love

Everything was meant to fit together.

To stay close.

To make love.

Even to think a Circle means “complete”

limits the universe, rebirthing.

We were made to celebrate

Every Love that visits Us,

like Flower awaits Bee

entering

each

of

Its

tender invitations.

*

All Beings were meant to fit together.

To stay close.

To make love.

“To Make Love” – Em Claire – Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved

Written by Em Claire

Em Claire was born in Seattle, Washington in the United States, and was raised in the beautiful Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon, where she now lives. Twenty-three of her poems appear in the New York Times best seller When Everything Changes, Change Everything by Neale Donald Walsch, and her first full collection of poetry has just arrived in bookstores under the title Silent Sacred Holy Deepening Heart. www.EmClairePoet.com