Lone Tree on a Hill

- a poem by Rachel Baird about a new friend she recently met-a tree, high on a hill near Inverliever, Argyll. Enjoy!

This story, “The Girl Who Loved the North Wind” came to me through the wonderful book Body Eloquence by story-teller-teacher-author-healer Nancy Mellon. This special book not only affirms the healing, life-giving power of stories and story-telling, it also offers specific stories for particular body organs and systems. “The Girl Wo Loved the North Wind” is given as a medicine story for the Lungs.

These poems are prayers ~ words of honor and thanksgiving ~ to the myriad beings seen and unseen, with whom I share life in this still-healthy Virginia woodland. I write for my other-than-human friends who speak in languages I, only now, am learning to understand.

A young woman receives her father’s dying blessing, but is violently chased from home by her greedy brother. Maimed and wandering one-handed in the forest, she is temporarily rescued by a Prince. But fate and her brother send her into exile in the wild again. And then, the Snake magic begins!

And so I’ve come to appreciate lasts, and maybe not cling to them. Honoring them, instead of hoarding them. Slowing down to pay attention and anticipate them, rather than living at a blinding, consumptive speed.

Honestly, it is ridiculous how nature spoils us in abundance. There is really no way to ever be sufficiently grateful for all we have been given. The heaviness that starts to gather on the land at this time rises up in one last push of expansion. We hear the Earth whisper: “I nourish.” At the same time, we feel that same heaviness begin to sink, decline, and fall back to the ground, the fall winds rustling, “I transform.”

We all have innate sensory abilities that link us directly to the natural world. I recently taught a two-session Zoom class on plant communication. There were twenty-two students in the class from all parts of I’ll the world, all with different types and levels of sensitivities and experience. In the class, I gave a wide variety of ways to open up to nature and the plant world to receive information, messages, and lessons.

When you see animals grazing, they’re not just stopping in one spot and eating a whole bunch. They take a few little nibbles of the tips and then move on to the next plant, and in the process receive enormous amounts of information about adaptation and how to best physiologically prepare for coming events.

When the princess, Rose, uncovers the secret of her lost brothers, she embarks on a journey to find them, vowing to undo their enchantment. Her quest relies upon the help of wise elders, the length of the summer Solstice days, the guidance of dreams, the potency of nettles, and her own innocence, persistence, and skill in handwork.

Whenever I am guided to plant a seed in my garden and watch it sprout, grow and bloom, I feel as though I am witnessing one of nature’s many miracles. This is alchemy in action - the transformation of one small thing (a seed) into something much larger (a root, a flower, a medicinal herb).

The gateway of moving into heart space with nature is gratitude, and we can decide to bring more gratefulness into our lives and experience more joy. An excellent place within our daily rhythms to cultivate a steady stream of gratitude and to grow our connection with nature is in our relationship with our food.

The magical under-world journey of Thomas the Rhymer has been preserved in ballads and Scottish oral tradition for hundreds of years.

Everyone knows that seeds are magic. From Jack and the Beanstalk to the Biblical grain of mustard to marigolds in paper cups on a kindergarten windowsill, they provide a common and predictable miracle, a metaphor for potential, and a symbol of hope. They hold a sacred place in many religions, and humanists find them useful and evocative in expressions like 'seed money,' 'the germ of an idea,' 'finding fertile ground,' and so on. By working and playing with seeds, we touch the living future of the material world.

As I breathe and flourish as nature, I have evolved as a pattern hunter and explorer, working at the human’s intersection between the individual and the collective, focused on relationships, collaborations, and behavior change.

A Nature Evolutionary shares a timely article about working with fear and the help she received from her spiritual connection with the land.

Snags are where owls hold secret meetings and woodpeckers expertly stalk insects and a zillion microscopic worlds turn round. I sensed their underworldly importance as a keystone species of sorts, something dead but upright and life giving. Always leave a snag standing.

Come follow the adventures of the girl who must save an enchanted prince, through daring and cleverness and hardship, but also with the help of the ancients and the four great Winds.

Reflections from the Ancestors Connection and Healing Ritual from ONE member Rev. Tamara Grenier

Like most Druids, I have a deep kinship with the standing ones. They are my kin, my teachers, my friends and neighbors. They remind me how to breathe, to align, to connect, to give and to let go. As each one drops, my heart jumps in my chest. I pause, look, and give my thanks and blessings, again.