Lady of the Woods is what they call the birch tree its a slender tall tree its the first tree to grow on bare soil and from that one tree it can birth an entire forest.
On one of the many journeys I walked insearch of balance. I was to meditate on the birch tree, there are lessons we learn on all paths, in every connection we have and everything and everyone we encounter on the path.
I went into the wild open space beside a river and where I had seen a small grove of birch trees, I sat there listening to the river, feeling the earth strong beneath my feet solid in my hand and I listened and felt the air around me. I watched it dance through the tall birch branches and heard it whisper softly in each rustling.
I wondered what I was missing the mediation was to see what insight I would receive what inner thought spoke to me.
I sat there for hours and wondered what I was missing. Then I got up and went home a few nights after that failing, when the night breeze drifted through my open window with the dancing chime of the wind chimes in the trees outside. I drifted off to sleep.
I am not strong in meditation in that I can sit and drift into it. But I am better at visualization of what will open before my heart and mind it will open before my open eyes as I walk, as I dance, and as I dream.
I was walking back along the river only this time I walked bare foot along the river to the small grove as I stepped beneath the birch boughs I saw scattered birch trees, some where young just starting out their life others were older I walked among them I laid my hand upon them and felt the life force that all living things have.
As I walked among the trees listening to the river and the wind I came to the heart of the grove the tallest tree as I got closer it was different it was not a tree it was a woman more brilliant and clear in my mind. She was smiling at me and she held up her hand to me and there was a silver thread in it. It sparkled between us and as I looked I saw it passing right through me, I looked and the silver thread webbed out passing through trees, rock, earth and river.
As I looked closer I saw faces old and young in the trees, rocks, earth and the river too. I looked back at the Lady and found the tree and the woods as it had been, and yet it was different I was connected rooted in a deeper sense of life and the connection I have with other living things.
I woke with an insight:
We may not see the threads of life that connect us , that give us our deep roots and beginnings but we can feel it within us and that is were in our deepest core of being we will find a way to see what our eyes may not let us see. We will take root sort of speak and we will grow into a forest, the thread that connects us will reach where ever we are it is never severed, even when we will not see beyond the forest.
Every new beginning is bare soil, like the Birch we too can and will take root strong and we will grow because our roots are a symbol of our life force, our faith and our strength.
We are apart of something greater and (thought at times it may not seem like it) it is secure and strong. We have to rid ourselves of negativity, unhelpful influences and bad thoughts which bind us and limit us and we need to tap into and hold on to the positive thoughts that will encourage us and breath through us like the wind and flow out of us like the river.
If we want changes in our lives well the Divine can only do so much, at some point we have to move the Earth (Ourselves) to build a future of hope, strength and growth.
this brings to mind Abby Willowroot's Prayer:
Make me strong in spirit,
courageous in action,
gentle in heart,
Let me act in wisdom,
conquer my fear and doubt,
discover my own hidden gifts,
Meet others with compassion,
be a source of healing energies,
And face each day with Hope and Joy.
May your journey in this world be blessed.
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