A Beech taking its time
Letter XVI ~ Spring
Dear Yggdrasil,
I’ve noticed that just as you took your time in dropping your leaves, you are preparing carefully to bring the new ones out. Your buds are still a tight verdant green and the old beech nuts are still gathered around your feet. Just because others are ready, it does not mean you have to be. I learn a lot about myself from you.
I have been recovering from surgery, and immediately afterwards I expected to be better. I thought that it would be like magic, and that I would be a new person. But it didn’t work out that way. As the weeks pass my body has had many different reactions, and is much more sensitive to outside stressors, much like you after last night’s storm. Suddenly I react to food, to light, to exertion, much more sensitively. I do not like it. I am like you yet; I am not patient. You have understood the pace of the seasons and take time tending to yourself within them. The more I push, the more stressed my body is. I do not have all the time in the world though.
I can hear you asking why I do not take the time…
I guess you think all the systems we have built as humans to busy ourselves are nonsense. And I would agree. But escaping them is not easy. I am coming to see what you are saying though, and I know that perhaps time is something I have to take now.
Your feet are still damp from all the rain and it is making my trousers wet too. You are also dripping water on my head. It is not how I would normally take it in, but thank you for the thought, it is true that I am a bit dehydrated.
After the rain, everything in the forest glows more brightly. The hawthorn is in leaf and the celandine has shown her face. I am glad that spring is on the way.
I love the wisdom of this post; the sensitivity to the earth's rhythm and our individual rhythms and circumstances that work with it and react in different ways. I also felt unsettled by last night's storm, which is unusual for me.
I have a beech tree I love too, and reading your posts reminds that I'm connected to her even when I don't see her - thank you, and I wish you well in your recovery.
With spring I always feel more energy, I feel lighter/ brighter and more alive. Its like Nature tell me, look at me, I show you beauty, I show you magic. Its like a wonderful present every single year. But sometimes spring take time to finally burst. That is with us humans too. We need time Even if we want to jump. I am sorry to hear you have difficult things after your surgery. Surgery is often more tough with us than we think it will be, I wish you a good recovery 💟🌳🌼🌷