The Flow of Nature

My quiet, contemplative walk through the woods is suddenly derailed by the sight of a dead branch hanging on to two small shoots growing from the branch of a healthy tree. It is pressing them down, abrading their bark, and blocking them from growing as they should.

I consider the dead branch. I feel anger at it for damaging the new growth. Its life is done, yet here it is impacting other lives for no good purpose.

I pause to just experience the moment, releasing my anger. Surrounded by the sounds, the feel of dry leaves under my feet, the smell of the forest, the sounds of cars barrelling down the Interstate like unthinking ants, the intensity of my emotions, the breeze wafting past my face.

As I sit in these sensations, my attention shifts back to the dead branch. Looking more closely, I see moss and lichen growing there. My perception shifts. It’s not that the new shoots are being damaged by the dead branch. Rather, it’s that they are blocking it from completing its own life cycle - to rejoin the earth, nourish it through decomposition, and provide new life.

I lovingly lift the dead branch, covered with new life, from the shoots, and lay it reverently at the base of the mother tree. The shoots pop up toward the sun. The mother tree extends her appreciation to me for helping her children, living and dead, to freely continue their life paths.

I express my gratitude to the mother tree, and to her mother - the earth, for helping me learn to fully sit with my feelings and broaden my understanding of the circle of life.