Last Sunday morning while I meditated in my car in the parking lot behind Yoga Tree in Berkeley I caught out of the corner of my eye two shadows of these thin pine like trees playing against the wall of the neighboring building. The image stuck with me all week and time and time again I came back to it in my journal and my thoughts. Today I sat down at my office desk and let the image play in my mind and imagined what it would be like if I was one of these pine trees. Here is my play with the arising images.
Two Pine Tree Lovers
Seeing the shadows of two pine trees
dancing and kissing reflected on the orange brick wall
behind Yoga Tree
Sunday morning in Berkeley
got me wishing that
I was one of these two pine tree lovers
having this sacred
dance and play
One thing I know is that I wouldn’t wait
for the wind
to move me closer
to my lover
to offer her my arms
I would go running in her direction at first sunlight
tearing the parking lot and earth up
beneath my weathered roots
All I can think of is her gracefulness when she moves and sways
The fresh scent of her pine and the rainbow glow of the morning dew
burning off of
her slender body
Perhaps why I am so taken by her
is my intimate experience
of the years of rain
eroding the earth and dirt
between us
our roots finally touching
and my aged knowledge
and love
I’ve accumulated
for even her most crooked and limp branch
We’ve seen so much together
Many bird eggs hatch and
worms for breakfast
and been home to a great many
squirrel families and their stash
of nuts and sometimes pizza lifted
from the dumpsters below
We have even survived a lightening strike
or two
and a bout of drought
What I have learned is that no matter the
season and the weather
She is everything a pine tree lover could ever be-
steady amidst a world of change
always reaching to the sun
Her whispers with the wind
are always so soothing
her needles
both prickly and soft
I can never get enough
of her brush
her touch
the tickle of her pine cones
falling on my feet
in the chill of October
I ask her please lover
don’t ever stop expanding and growing
into your full blossom
and pine tree potential
For I am so happy to be your partner
making these seemingly silly and
beautiful shadow projections upon
this orange brick wall
for all
to admire and wonder about
Maybe
people can learn a lot from our love,
patience, and acceptance of each other exactly as
we are-
How we year by year find joy
in this shared Divine Earth space
Our eternal dance and hugs and our ascending and
descending sense of spirt, love, and purpose
How we clean the air and never take more than we need
How we openly love it and secretly laugh when the rare
boy or girl climbs our trunks leaping between branches
and hanging a tire swing
Even better was that stretch of years we watched boy and girl
and boy and boy and girl and girl
become men and women beneath our canopy of branches
mimicking our dance, our movements, our kisses and falling
so far in love just like us
and just like so many of our pine tree ancestor lovers
OM… Shanti, Shanti, Shanti
Thank you for reading… I am all caught up in how great and so beautiful we all are. We are all children of the Divine Mother Earth and are always resting in her loving arms. May we all serve to protect our Great Mother.
Namaste,
John