The Tree

There Once Was an unusual kind of Tree that grew in a magical place. Its fat tap root sank so deep in the soil it reached the Wellspring and  drew up living waters into every cell of its body. From the time it was but a seedling it nourished itself on these living waters.  Eventually it became sturdy, vibrant, and full; and with the magic of its presence it naturally attracted people and other creatures who were drawn to sit in its shade, taste its fruit and savor its juices.  Some people thought the Tree was confused, others thought it a bit odd. Still people came from many places, from the North and the South, the East and the West. Many People were finding that simply being with this tree and taking in its many gifts nourished them in very satisfying ways.

Now the most interesting thing about this Tree is that it had different kinds of fruit on each of its branches.  On some branches there were apples, others had peaches, some had mangoes, some bananas , and on other there were oranges, or pairs, or  grape fruit.  The people would come and each had a specific desire for the flavor of one of those fruits.  Each kind of fruit had its own kind of gift, a taste that inflected its living waters in a specific flavor.  Yet all the juices were versions of living waters; each kind of fruit offering a different quality of the living waters….The people who came hungered for a specific quality.  One kind of fruit offered Presence and fullness of Being, another offered Tenderness, and Kindness.  There were fruits of Wisdom and Experience, of Truth and of Authenticity, of Creativity, Compassion, of Forgiveness, of Individuality;  there were fruits of Beauty, Centeredness, Courage and each person who ate of a fruit was stirred to live a little more by this quality.  Some came often to nourish themselves, and those who did found inside themselves that they, too, were becoming more like that magnificent Tree.  Each time they would eat of its fruit, or simply sit and talk in the Presence of that Tree, they would become a little more like that Tree,…In time they were sending down their tap roots deeper and deeper until they too were tapping into an underground wellspring flowing with living waters.  In due season they found their own inner Trees developing many kinds of fruit.  Just like that magnificent Tree, they found themselves nourishing others, for fruits are for the nourishing of others, and bringing forth new life.  The Tree doesn’t feel loss, but deep satisfaction in fulfilling its purpose of nourishing new life in others.

But it wasn’t always like this for the great Tree. There was a time when it was a skinny sapling struggling to live and grow in a lowly valley in the forest. All the many trees around it were on the rising slopes, and had better access to sunlight, leaving the sapling wanting to be with them, and big enough like them to claim its place in the sky. The other trees were themselves a little less thin than the sapling, but much taller. The little tree, in its own manner, spent a lot of time wishing it was with the other trees, becoming one of them. But it was rooted where it was rooted, in a bowl shaped lowly vale.  It wasted a lot of time wishing and in its own manner enviously watching the other trees. It felt embarrassed to be so scrawny, and in its own manner feared how they might esteem it.

One day this young tree decided to start send roots over to the slopes, and maybe, if it could get a hold of the soil there, could root itself and pull itself over. But it took too long, months past into years, and it began to languish for water, for sending its roots along the surface of the forest floor kept it from tapping into a water source. It had to rely on run off water from the hills after a good rain, and in the hot summer, there was very little of that.

The tree gradually became weakened by dehydration. It was so miserably thirsty.

In its own way the tree began to despair and with drooping leaves was ready to give up. In one last gasp it tensed up and tried to send out its roots again. But only its tap root wiggled a tiny bit. Then it happened. Suddenly, it became aware of its tap root wiggling, and put its energies there. Using only its capacity to feel, in the manner that trees do, it sensed with its tap root a  dampness in the soil when it wiggled. It burrowed its root deeper, and sure enough, the soil felt more moist right below. The moisture felt so good on this tap root that the little tree began moving it about, burrowing deeper and deeper, and as it did so, the soil became even more moist. Like a sponge it began soaking up the moisture, distilling it into little droplets of water, conveying it efficiently to each little cell in its body. In its own way, it realized that this dampness must have been here all along, but it had been reaching in the wrong direction. Deciding to follow the moisture, it pushed down deeper, and sponged up more, and the tap root fattened up and in just a little time got efficient at sucking in the moisture. This went on for several month; the tap root fattened, the tree grew thicker and taller, and its leaves full and open. The little tree was now on a mission to find the source of that moisture. It went on downward until it hit something hard. It pushed and pushed, but the hard surface wouldn’t yield. It must be a large boulder.

The tree became still for awhile, and in its own way wondered what to do. It had no real capacity to figure it out. It had no tools, no drills or hammers, only its ability to move with feeling, in the manner that trees do, and a desire to reach the water source. Eventually it came to the tree that if it can’t move downward because of this obstacle, then just follow the moisture to find a way around it. It already knew how to follow the moisture. Thus the root began moving and feeling to see if it should shift a little more to the right, or curl a tiny bit the to left, and…already aware, in its own way of when the richness of moisture invites it to move deeper. So it meandered and burrowed deeper in this way for sometime, and moving around some other obstacles too, until eventually it found an underground stream, and source fed inexhaustibly by a wellspring. From its tap root it shot out many little fingers to drink its fill, and eventually that is how this tree came to be so large that in its fullness its now fills the valley with its shade, and rises above the trees on the hillsides, and is many times fatter than they.