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When you look at a forest, you think you’re looking at a static thing, but what you’re looking at is this incredible cycle.

~Suzanne Simard

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Dear Reader

As April gives way to the first mild days of May, I’ve watched the Red Oak that frames our living room window dress herself for the spring festivities. Standing bare to me and the world from November through May, she dominated my view. Now, dressed in green, she simply fades into the increasing collage of foliage. At any one single stage, it’s difficult to imagine her any other way, and that there might be more to her story. I have a fortunate life to observe her full cycle.

Last weekend, my busy mind craved some nurturing, so instead of tuning in to my usual politics chat, I listened to this interview with Suzanne Sinard. Not only has Suzanne committed much of her life to the study of forests, but she also knows what it’s like to push for a paradigm shift in thinking. In this particular recording, she speaks of the cyclical structures within the forest and how they have been overlooked.

Maybe it was Suzanne’s talk or the fact that I spent a good deal of my week in the fledgling Gemmo Forest, but I’ve found myself contemplating the cycle of life within a forest and its teachings. When I step into a true natural forest, the first thing I notice is a sense of timelessness and a feeling of disconnecting from the current era. The next thing that catches my attention is the awareness that, from any place I stand and in a single moment in time, I am experiencing every stage of its life cycle: birth, decay, and death. It leads me to wonder whether spending more time in the forest might be a powerful antidote to the moment we are currently living. Not as an escape from, but a reminder that decay, death, and birth can and in fact in nature do occur at the same time. It may be the perfect practice in seeing the whole because there are many days when seeing the whole feels out of reach.
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I believe building gardens and growing a small forest have taught me to sort, with greater clarity, what’s important and what’s not, what needs immediate attention and what can wait. In my previous life, everything used to call to me at once with seemingly equal priority. This often led me into unhealthy work patterns and to missing what’s truly valuable. Today, I see that the natural settings where I spend most of my time have supported a deeper understanding and acceptance of what is no longer thriving and what holds a glimmer of potential. It has shown me that often they are connected. Has it helped my view beyond these landscapes? I am beginning to think it has. At least it is training me to question what I am missing.

The businesses currently engaged in sharing information called news do so in bite-sized segments, intentionally dissecting them from the whole. This parceling doesn’t allow one to see where it fits into the complete cycle, and leads to a belief that it is not important. But as I hope you are beginning to gather, I think it is. Additionally, the accumulation of these bits of information creates overwhelm and muddy rational thinking. Using the forest example, if you would only be able to see the gorgeous towering trees but miss the decaying floor, you’d miss its value as an integral part of the cycle.

If it is at all possible in the days ahead, find your way into a forest, or lead yourself into one with your mind as a guided meditation. Allow whatever wants to be shared to occur and observe its impact on your perspective in days to come. Outside of that, hold this question close: what part of a full cycle am I being shown, and what is missing? You will find this particularly potent, given the sun's transit into Gate 2. It is the Gate of Higher Knowing and supports your natural ability to tap directly into inner guidance. I'd enjoy hearing how it goes.
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Many May Blessings,

The sun transits through Gates 2 & 23

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