Return to the Roots ...

Firmly Planted
Originally uploaded by papalars
Do not be afraid, but oak, big and deeply rooted.

This is the 3rd line of the Kabbalistic MAGI process. I have always been so drawn to the pull and power of this statement. A calling, if you will, to be both firmly planted within myself and to feel this in Nature, on the grander scale, joined with the trees.

The temperatures have finally reached Spring-like warmth and it was just the right day to make a return to the roots --- the inviting woods that are roughly a mile's walk from where I live.

I felt rejuvenated by this walk on so many levels: the warmth of the sun on my face; the aliveness in each footstep landing on the ground; the awe of being in the presence of these majestic trees and their branches extending out like a handshake, welcoming back an old friend.

There were a handful of folks mingling among the trees; the best sight I saw was a small group of elementary school aged children, say around 9 or 10 yrs old, who were there with someone that appeared to be their teacher and perhaps an aide. They were testing the pH of the creek water and were looking at some kind of plant too. It was so sweet to watch the look of wonder in their eyes. A few who were distracted made it a point to wave "Hi" to me as I walked by.

What I appreciated the most was my willingness and desire to walk on a day where I had more free time than usual and could have easily planted myself on the overstuffed chair to read. I loved being able to move my body in a rhythmic pace; it became meditative after awhile. It was almost like the feeling I get when doing Impersonal Movement -- everything begins to blend into One Thing, where I no longer feel my separate, personal body and I enter a space of "Is-ness". That was my experience today for a portion of my walk, particularly as I entered farther into the woods on a small path. I could have stayed in that place of being a "tree among trees" for a long time.

Exiting up the hill and out of the wooded park area, onto the pavement and the traffic-lined road was like when we do a part of Impersonal Movement to end the practice -- we walk "out of the seam". When this happens in the practice for me, as it did leaving the woods today, everything comes into view in a 3-D like way. Clear and vivid and with texture and dimension. I saw signs and rocks and birds and sides of houses in ways that I had not seen them before. Everything was bathed in God-like sunlight.

Until today, I had forgotten how meaningful it is for me to visit the woods. I am glad to have heard "the call" to return to the roots ...