On my walk, I marvelled at the intense greening all around. the innocent young oaks are a frothy mass of foliage and flowering. They have grown unhindered, like fortunate children, from the moment of planting.
Then, I came to a row of older trees - limes, that have been severely pollarded. I paused there, musing on how new growth is springing out of the very places that were pruned and cut. The long slender branches that reach to the sky remain dry and bare, but close to the scarred trunk, leaves are bursting out.
I wondered whether this happens with us too, that the very site of our pain attracts nature's attention. Isn't this where the most intense growth takes place, if we let it, and don't keep plastering over our wounds? Left to the workings of nature, our sites of loss so often turn out to be openings to the sacred.
5 comments:
I like the idea if nature healing our pain; a very thoughtful post.
Hi Juliet, thank you for your comment in my blog, funnily enough I have picked up your books and thought, hmmm I should buy and read them !We think similarly, you and I - the beautiful new growth on the trees at the moment is one of the spring joys I so look forward to every year, oaks in particular here in Hamilton are just about glowing, and the way you speak about the new growth stemming from damaged wood really describes what is going on in the tree itself ... when a tree looses a limb or the top is taken out, the tree starts to produce epicormic shoots which grow from dormant buds along the trunk and big branches in a hurry to replace what is lost - trees are living entities with amazing structure - the lungs of the earth. .
thank you Ngaio for this information, and for your comment. I hadn't heard of epicormic shoots; how fascinating.
Like Ngaio, I have been enjoying the greening of the city of Hamilton. When I wake in the morning the green down the street takes my breath away. It is indeed glowing. "our sites of loss ..openings to the sacred' beautiful juliet.
Ngaio's information is interesting, and your post is so thoughtful.
Juliet, Thank you once again for your generous celebrating of Spring and for connecting this with our deeper lives. I feel richer for your blog and newsletter coming regularly. Thank you for the tending and sharing you do.
I'm touched by your image of nature attending to places of pain in trees and in us. A reassuring and hopeful metaphor for all of us. More than a metaphor, nature is so abundant, intelligent and responsive!
A friend told me that in Spain people talk of 'nature putting on it's green'..
Sue
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