"But down deep, at the molecular heart of life, the trees and we are essentially identical."
- Carl Sagan
My boyfriend and I went camping in Malibu recently to celebrate our anniversary. We stayed at Sycamore Cove Campground in Malibu, which was absolutely beautiful. It is right across the street from the ocean and nestled in the mountains with beautiful sycamore trees, riverbed, shrubs, and wildlife. At our campground specifically, we had such a beautiful Sycamore extending its branch down into the campground, seeming to invite its campers to come crawl/hang/be in its presence. What Reiki has taught me, more than I already knew, is that the life force energy that Reiki is; is in everything around us.
On Saturday afternoon, as the sun was shining over the peak of the mountain and into our campsite, I felt an ever more special call to what I now recognize her as, “Sycamore Beauty”. As I climbed on to her strong and inviting branch, I saw that campers before me had carved love words, names, and symbols into her trunk. My first reaction was, “ How could someone leave marks on such a special piece of nature?!” I was kind of mad… Then I heard a voice say, “connect to my spirit and you will see these marks don’t hurt me, they represent all those that have spent their time with me.” I was called by Beauty to connect to her life force and as I called in Reiki to assist me with this, I quickly realized Beauty was happy to have humans connecting to nature and creating memories amongst her branches. As she invited me to join her, she had invited these others at different times, as well. She urged me to look up higher into her branches and when I did, I saw that a specific person had come back to her many years in a row and had left their years of visits on her branches. I turned from mad into joyful to know of the memories that many had shared and the time they had taken to slow down, take a break from the day-to-day life, and be immersed in nature and Beauty’s presence, as I had that weekend. Seeing the example of those who returned year after year made me feel so warm inside that Beauty had left a similar mark in their hearts as she did in mine. Although I may not know these people personally, I appreciated them.
As my Reiki training has taught me as well, you cannot fight darkness with darkness, and as we all grow to love and appreciate each other and see ourselves as beautiful as nature sees us, we lift up all of humanity. What I hope those reading this take away from my story, is to be present and listen in every moment. We may never know the reasoning at first, but there is a reason my boyfriend and I chose Campsite 57 at Sycamore Cove Campground that weekend, and it was to have this amazing ah-ha moment in nature and appreciate that we too, are a part of nature. As Steve Jobs has said, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards.”
What trees have you spoken to recently? :)
XX Ashley