I have trees throughout my neighborhood that function as friends. There, I’ve said it. As I am writing this I am leaning against a huge oak. It’s an old, wise, giving tree in a park within walking distance from my house. I make it my business to visit this tree regularly.
My Good Friend, Oak
I have a feeling that different trees provide us with different medicines just as plants do. In my experience, we don’t even have to create anything from trees to receive their healing benefits. We can just sit with them and have positive shifts in our energy or receive insights.
Baba Rahsan Abdul Hakim, herbalist and Founder of Sundial, once told me “Trees have a healing spirit. You know herbs have a healing spirit. You don’t have to pluck it or pick it for it to work with you.” He explained that many of our ancestors would simply sit with nature to receive healing; but “after we lost the knowledge (through colonization and enslavement) we have to make tea and thing like that, we never had to do that before. That’s just come (recent) business.”
Trees have allowed me to experience this older form of healing. Every time I sit with one, I come away changed.
This oak I’m with always surrounds me with an energy of support long after I leave the park. It reminds me that I can only grow when I nourish and nurture my roots. It helps me be unabashed in my love for nature–even when I am alone, I have no issue walking up to the tree to lean on it or even give it a hug. My friend the oak says that there is a time for everything: from quiet growth to abundant sharing.
As the leaves fall and change color this Autumn, please don’t forget to sit and listen to the wisdom of the trees and plants.
What has nature told you lately?
The Sage Honey 