To The Woods

To the woods:

to the woods - and each tree comes individual to my attention, unique in its own fashion, and still belongs completely to the same ground as every other tree, nourished by the same sun and rain, all beneath one sky. My experience is both the deep woods, a gathered life of trees, as well as the intimacy that each tree gives in its completeness. I'm nourished too by all that's been given to the woods, we are a shared beneath the sun, touch by rain, and from the earth. I am a forest in their presence. 

The story tells of what a tree is, what makes it separate from other trees, it's use to animals and man. It's a story of fiction told real. True, but not complete. I share this story too, my own told to others and myself of what I am, what keeps me apart, and my use to people and society. It's fiction. A tree is of use by simply being, there's no mission to fulfill a story, no effort to its spread of branches - there's no question of it being from the earth, the deep roots of its connection to every tree that makes the woods, there's no question to what it offers to the world. 

To the woods - and each tree offers me this lesson. I am told that I belong, a kinship of being. I am of the woods too, connected by deep roots, shared beneath the same sun and sky. In the absence of a story - I am the woods, no different than a tree in my own unique fashion. There's no question to what I offer to the world. 

I am. 

~

Peace,

Eric