A person is like a tree of the field.
כִּ֤י הָֽאָדָם֙ עֵ֣ץ הַשָּׂדֶ֔ה
Deuteronomy 20:19
On Sunday evening we will enter the Hebrew month of Shvat. Known for the holiday of Tu’B’Shvat, in this month we honor and celebrate our connection to the earth and to trees. As we enter the new year I am slowly re-entering after taking a break from my electronic devices. A break from reading emails or thinking about my work; a break from reading the news or checking my phone for texts. I realize this is a privilege and I am grateful for the opportunity.
And yet, two weeks later, I am still struggling to focus, create and work. Because these are not normal times. This Shevat, more than ever, we are in need of the medicine this month has to offer, the invitation to pay attention to and cultivate our awareness of ourselves as body beings, living alongside and in connection to the earth, trees and all living beings, and to our own hearts.
Here are some gifts my break in December gave to me.
We need rest and down time. In the face of all that is happening in the world, we may feel grief, anger, hopelessness and despair. Our bodies need to be honored for the extra effort it takes to live in distressing and dangerous times. We need to listen when our bodies need to rest.
We need open awareness. To wander with our awareness, to watch the clouds change. To not focus upon an idea, a thought, an image. Our creativity and grounded ability to respond (rather than react) is enhanced when we open our attention with an unfocused view.
We need meaningful connection to the earth. To the living breathing creatures of the earth, trees, plants, birds, insects, ourselves, our loved ones. To the moon and sun and tides.
Something happened this week that felt like hitting turbulence on an airplane. On Monday, a wave of tears arrived and I could not stop crying. I knew, intellectually, that I was having an experience that would not last forever, but my sensing body was in tumult. This week I have experienced a deeper grief, both personally and collectively for our world, as a very heavy weighted blanket on top of me.
And then. This morning. Something shifted so that I could take in the beauty around me. The strong warm sun. The living live oak tree. I stepped barefoot onto the cold deck in the brisk morning air, and my entire being opened to the living earth and trees surrounding me. I started to slowly dance between movement and stillness.
Placing my mind, my attention upon my sensing body awareness and experience is the balm that always grounds me. But moving my body, this brings me joy. When we change our posture, our shape, our facing, our rote ways of being and moving, we access different feeling states. We have more options.
The feeling of being surrounded by the elements of nature in a sensing body cannot be captured with a picture. I go to the trees, the earth, the mountain, the ocean to be surrounded from all sides, especially around, above and behind me, with nature.
And the trees, the trees, the trees. The trees root and rise. They are steady, they are upright. Their structure mirrors the uprightness and shape of our human form. Roots, trunk and branches are feet and legs, torso and arms. We feel our life force rising in energy just as sap rises inside the tree. We reach, we sway, we fall. And we both have crowns at the top.
The trees live in community. They send nutrients and messages to one another. They take care of one another. Their well being depends upon their community. Just as the trees lean upon one another for support, so also can we lean upon them. I experience the trees as my companions, my friends, my partners in living on this earth.
Like the trees, we need community. The extent to which we can be present to ourselves is truly the extent to which we can be present for others. Sometimes we must rely upon each other for wisdom, perspective, love and compassion when we cannot find a way out of despair on our own.
This week, when my tears would not stop, I realized that in addition to feeling held by nature, I needed to be held with the loving attention of another human being. And I called upon those who could offer to me embodied presence.
This is our task right now. For ourselves. For one another. To be present with one another on all levels of being, including our breath and our bodies, and especially including our broken hearts. With our whole being, and with the loving care of others as needed, our path is to allow ourselves to feel all that needs to be felt. Connecting rather than disconnecting. Engaging rather than disappearing. Staying with our own internal state when things get turbulent and offering compassionate listening and presence to each other.
This Shevat, may we be called to remember that we are the trees, and we are the earth. May we honor and know this with our bodies and our beings so that we can behave and live with care for this gorgeous, beautiful world that we are blessed to experience for a short time.