A tree is an entity whose very purpose in life seems to include the task of conducting water from the darkness of the earth, into the realm of light.
A tree also drinks light in through the photosynthetic capacity of leaves, and–since it is in the nature of sunlight to travel, to fill the space around it–this sunlight, striking the leaves of a tree on planet Earth, tarries on its journey into the vastness of space. As light flows down the trunk into the darkness of the earth, it provides the energy needed for the roots to grow and to sip on yesterday’s rain.
The body of the tree is the meeting of these two flows. Not just the vehicle to conduct light into the earth and water back towards the sky, but the child of those two flows. Sunlight can move into the welcoming darkness of Mother Earth because she has built a tower to receive it, a beacon tossing its leaves in the breeze. And the fibers and flowing sap from Mother Earth can defy gravity because Father Sun has kindled the life of leaf and all those thirsty pores and cells along the way. A tree stands between earth and sky and is the very meeting ground of their love affair.
Not so different from you and me.
Very beautiful… we live on an Earth born of stars, consuming it as it consumes us, between the darkness and the light. Children of the light, encouraged by the dark.
Thanks for completing the circle of the dance of earth and sky, and throwing in a few stars