Hitting Send

Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky..

She was the first thing I noticed about my new home. With her large moss covered trunk, her many branches reaching high into the sky, the conifer tree stands 150 feet tall in her magnificent grander. Surely, Dear Reader, you can imagine my delight at the presence of a Sacred tree, my desire to learn more about her, and my longing to sit at her base in meditation. The tree’s a twin, you know? From its base, a branching of two, it is thus considered to be a Sacred tree by the Native American Pomo tradition, a tribe which inhabited this area long ago. She’s also a heritage tree, protected by a county ordinance, and recorded as being over six hundred years old. Can you imagine what she’s seen?

The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more.

While her thick trunk has branched out over time, she is a ‘Lone Wolf’ regally stretched above the valley, bearing witness to the history of the land, and many Sacred ceremonies. While impressive, it isn’t the age nor height which makes this Douglas Fir tree so special, but the location in which she has lived since the 1400’s, as its considered inhospitable for her kind. Yet, despite poor soil and weather conditions, she has grown and thrived. Home to many more creatures than I can imagine, including a beehive tucked into a nook in the trunk, I found mushrooms growing against the lush green moss, and a Beautiful spiderweb drifting in the cool morning breeze.

How she came to be, we’ll never know, it probably wasn’t a human though. Indigenous tribes were the only ones residing in the area in the 1400’s, and as they were not known for planting fir trees, it is thus believed that the seeds for this tree were brought incidentally by a traveling animal. Grow she did, the landscape beneath changing form as shelters and roads were built near by. A group of Bahá’í’s owned the land, gathering often, I’m told, for speeches and ceremonies beneath the Sacred tree. About one hundred years ago she was visited by Luther Burbank, who identified the conifer as being over five hundred years old, which is consistent with what arborists are saying today. She currently watches over a retreat center and animal sanctuary, which is also my new home.

For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider,
every green tree is far more glorious
than if it were made of gold and silver.

She stands strong, deeply grounded, she knows the earth’s secrets, yet also converses with the heaven’s above. As I sat at the base in silent meditation, I felt Blessed by the presence of this Amazing Sacred tree, whose gentle heartbeat pulses with the music of Mother nature and all life, a part of the whole, sharing simple truths and wisdom. What a Wonderful gift is the heritage tree.

Love and Blessings,
Antonia