First set aside a few hours. Trees run at a much slower pace than humans
and to hear even a sentence may take hours.
Find a mature tree. A tree must be at least a quarter century old before
it will have much to say. Young trees get teaching, not give it. The
older the tree, the more it will have to share. Pick a tree that has lived
gently in a kind place. Trees that have a lot of graffitti and litter and
other signs of abuse may have gone comatose with grief and if you manage to
connect you'll hear only grief. There is no grief deeper than that of a
tree.
Sit against your chose tree and relax yourself. Be comfortable. Be
prepared to sit for a few hours. Close your eyes and hear the tree. Feel
it against your back. Feel your back sinking into the bark, straight and
strong. Imagine how it would feel to be a tree. How does it feel to dance
stately in the soft wind or passionately in a storm? What is it like to
feel the tiny quick tickles of bright songed birds flitting microscopically
among your limbs, fast, tiny, happy--like sparkles? Know the feel of your
arms and hair reaching to the sky and drinking in sunshine. Know the earth
surrounding your feet and knees, tiny worms wiggling through your toes,
small creatures curling up for a moment to sleep or for the night to
hibernate. Imagine the sun traveling like a rocket across the sky,
followed by rapid swirl of stars and daybreak again. Each cycle marking an
hour in your life. Your day is the seasons. Spring is morning, summer is
noon, autumn is evening and in winter you take your sleep. Deep
sleep. Beneath you scurry multitude strange creatures. Sometimes they
dart in, touch you briefly and dart out. Their lives are lived as
quicksilver, fast and furious. Sometimes when they dart in and out they
leave a spot of pain. A carving in your flesh that never quite
heals. Sometimes they bring the ultimate terror, fire. A bright lick of
energy that sears and twists and maybe kills. Imagine your dearest beloved
beside you suddenly hacked to the ground, dying as she lays there for hours
drying. The grief of trees is deep.
Let this tree catch the wind, hear it whisper leafy secrets of the
air. Hear what it has seen in it's decades of life. What lessons has it
cultivated from these? What would YOU know if you were a tree? Hear it,
dream it, feel it. When you can know tree, you can hear tree.
A tree is a living creature that stands longer than any human can know. It
has time to ponder and observe. It does not watch the myriad details but
rather sees the results. What might it have figured out in it's woody
knowing?
Trees are also the voice for the Wind. They capture the Wind's words and
speak them aloud for us to hear. The Wind dances from one part of the earth
to another. He knows the fast and the slow, the large and the small. He
makes His way into the minds of all things, men, animal, tree, water,
anything. There is no proof against the Wind, He will find His way into
every secret. He can tell you anything you wish or need to know. His
words though rarely please for He will tell you the truth. If you are
hiding from Truth you will not like the answers. If you are not, you do
not need them.