Once … a long time ago … in Glastonbury Abbey I had a long and interesting conversation with a tree!
It was autumn and the tree’s leaves were starting to tumble to the ground, the tree asked me why human beings had such difficult times letting go of the things they no longer needed.
I explained that many humans were fearful of letting go in case the thing they surrender never returned to them, or the space created by the absence was never filled.
The tree pondered this for a while and then said …
In Autumn the weather and light signals to the trees that it is time to prepare for the great sleep and that in order to do so energy needs to be conserved. This conservation of power sustains the trees through winter – allowing their consciousness to retreat into their roots where the power of the Earth Mother sustains them. Also the surrender of the leaves and the power they have held makes way for the great push that is to come in spring – a time of renewal and promise.
There is no guarantee – the tree explained – that the time of the great push would come BUT the tree’s lived ever in faith that the mother would take care of them and when the time came supply them with light and warmth and energy a new that would enable them to regrow.
The surrendering of the leaves then was done in joy, casting off the old in complete trust that in time that absence would be filled with new life.
This – the tree said – was what mankind must do … have faith and trust that when the need came to surrender the old or that which could no longer sustained – in time (after the great sleep) – new life would return to fill the void created.
Relax then … the tree said … and let go, such transformation should be an act of relaxation and surrender rather than effort, release and abandonment rather than pushing and trying – all done in trust that when the light and warmth returns new life will spring forth from the old and all will be reborn!
