Maria and I walked out into the woods this morning. My new companion, heart angina, is changing the way we walk, but not the fact that we walk. Every now and then, I have to stop and let my heart settle, then I keep on walking, just as before. I have a new partner when I walk.
But I will always walk.
Maria is very patient, she is happy to stop and look at the trees, talk to them, experience them.
She has inspired me to do the same. I have always loved trees, but ever quite appreciated their spiritual power.
They are so ubiquitous and quiet, it is simple to just not see them or think of them.
Because of the angina, I have to stop every now and then wait for my heart to settle, especially if I am walking uphill. This has turned out to be a spiritual or meditative or creative addition to my walks. Sometimes I close my eyes and listen, sometimes I stand and meditate with my eyes open. I hear sounds I never heard before. Sometimes I take a photograph.
When my heart lets me know, I start walking again. A new rhythm, a new way to talk. It is quiet beautiful in its own way, I am forced to slow down and appreciate the world. At first, I was concerned that I would slow Maria down, that she wouldn’t enjoy the walk. But she loves the pauses, a chance for her to slow down her mind and step out of her brain, as she puts it. She loves the trees and learns from them.
We stopped this morning at our favorite tree, a beautiful old thing that reaches up to the sky and is wide, weathered and strong. First, Maria leaned into it, drawing strength from its age and wisdom, and then I did, both to rest and to heal. I felt a great sense of peace from the tree, my heart felt strong and rested.
I took Maria’s photo, she took mine. When we left, we both felt so peaceful and clear. In his wonderful book, The Hidden Lives Of Trees, biologist Peter Wohlleben writes of immigrant trees, and their deep and ancient place in the forest. “Thanks to the migration of trees,” he writes, the forest is constantly changing.”
What we see, he writes, is always a brief snapshot of a landscape that only seems to be standing still. The illusion is always perfect in the forest, because trees are among the slowest-moving beings with which we share our world and changes in the natural forest are observable only over the course of many human generations.
One of these perpetual changes is the arrival of new species. Immigrants have a special status in the forest, says Wohlleben, Trees accept immigrants, draw nourishment and sustenance from the, writes Wohlleben. They invigorate and refresh the forest and all of nature.
I drew strength from this wonderful old tree, and hope.The world is always changing, and we don’t live long enough and are not wise enough to grasp it. I took a great sense of calm from the tree, not something I would have felt even a few short years ago. I am grateful for the trees.
