A Relationship With A Tree

It may be that you have an interest in developing relationships within the natural world. My particular interest has been in cultivating relationships with redwood trees, old growth redwood trees. It's important, by the way, that you are somewhere which is not electromagnetically polluted. You must get away from microwaves and you must get away from cell phone service.

Let me now describe the mirroring process with a tree. If you're patient, it becomes clear that you and a particular tree, have a resonance with each other, a recognition without explanation.  Residing in this resonance creates the opportunity for witnessing a delicate, intuitive process of just showing up at the tree with a respectful focus.

Relationship with a tree is not like a relationship with a human. A tree will not project on you. It doesn't have intimacy issues and wants nothing. So whatever fears and suspicions and hesitancies you have about a relationship with a tree, is really what you're bringing.

Let's go forward here. You have been witnessing, experiencing the presence that develops between you and the tree. A silence emerges. Now you can offer relationship to a tree. Be patient and free of expectation. We know instinctively how to mirror, how to imitate. Over time, if you're fortunate, the tree will respond to your mirroring by becoming a mirror of itself. And then it reflects what it has received.

At that point, you must relax into the back and forth and experience the tree’s offering, itself, as it's seen by you. If you're not anxious or greedy, the mirroring back and forth will proceed at an unpredictable pace. It can be slow; it can be rapid. It can be disrupted. I've had the process disrupted by tourists wanting a photo of the tree.

I have engaged in this process now for three decades. I learned it after I fell in love with California Redwoods. There is one more step here. It's possible for me as a mirror to magnify the intensity of my mirroring. By doing that, I change the quality of the energy that's flowing. It becomes more intense, more refined. Over time, I am changed. So is the tree.