When a tree takes over🌳💕

Heres a message from a tree....

My friend and i were out on a picnic again...it was a bright day and we packed some home cooked food for lunch and drove to the park where our favourite old raintree by the pond is. The moment we got there...we placed  the bag containing our lunch on the large roots growing on the surface of the ground, spread the shawls we brought on the grass and simply lied down looking up to catch the glimpses of clear blue sky filling the spaces in between the branches of lush green canopy. Despite the sunny day, it was shady and cool under the tree as always and we just had to take sometime to soak it all in before we had lunch. 

The first thing we noticed was a big  bird perched on one of the branches right above us which was busy preening itself. We didn't know the name of this bird which looked like a stork and we have seen them during our previous picnic outings..and were amazed at their very loud calls, almost as loud as peacocks..and to our delight in just a few minutes another one flew in calling loudly and settled in another branch. As we were looking a those beautifully calm birds we also spotted squirrels  and Robins hopping about the tree with no particular purpose...(just like us :) seemed like all of us were in it together...the big birds, Robins ...squirrels and other blue birds and  water birds taking a bath in the pond hidden by the water plants covering almost the entire surface.. 

hmmm...such moments gently draws you a little deeper into the realms where  the connections are formed with the roots running wild and free below the ground where we were lying  on....the collective memory held by a tree as old as a hundred years who has seen thousands of birds...ants and insects dwelling silently, sharing the sun and the rain...with its energy so subtle yet  strong  that it takes  you over so very quietly...and as you glide into its world..you are no longer in control of what you think or say...for it is them speaking through you...

Thats how our conversation about the birds...and squirrels and trees led to the image I've shared above...here's how it happened...

After having lunch...and as we continued chatting...my friend collected a few twigs and sticks from the ground where we were sitting and said ..."these are like fingers" and she started arranging them on the shawl creating an image of a hand. I was just watching her and when it was done i said...hey ya it does look like a skeleton of a hand....then she picked up one of the fallen tiny flowers we found on the path we walked earlier..and placed it in the middle of the skeleton hand she created...again with no purpose but when I looked at it...I got an idea to take a picture with my hand placed beside it with a flower in the center too...with no purpose or meaning of course...

She snapped the picture and we both exclaimed...."hey that looks kind of interesting!" She said "you can write about the picture in your blog" And I wondered.." Yeah it sure looks interesting but then what can I say about it?" 

So I kept the picture saved in my mobile to be looked at later and we went on chatting about other stuff which led to a conversation about the flat earth theory...

After the beautiful day out we left the park and drove home. And later that night as I was looking through some of the pictures we snapped at the park...I took a few seconds extra to look at the picture of the hands with the flower in the center...and suddenly it came alive with a message...

The twigs...the flower and the shape of the hand now made sense..

This is what it revealed....

Beneath the flesh and blood...is the skeleton which will one day be exposed just like these twigs... it will be so brittle and incapable of moving or doing anything it had done while it had the flesh and blood sticking to it...but the flower...  remains just as fresh and vibrant in both stages. Unmoved and untouched by the changes, firmly rooted right at the center ...as the universal soul ....

So...shift your attention from the changeable to the unchangeable element of life...keep moving towards the center even if its just an inch each time...instead of just hovering over the surface for it is at the center where the magic of life begins...why fuss over helpless skeletons when you are an everlasting magical being...why go round and round on those unstable plains of life and tire yourself when you could stay as fresh and vibrant...bright and breathtakingly beautiful eternally ..? 

So...that's how the picture and the message was revealed...there was no process of thinking or imagining involved...but simply a moment of surrender to the roots...with no purpose....for that's how trees talk...in a language of its own...beyond what you could hear or read or write yet conveying messages as clear as Crystal... :) 

Tree Time Stories

What happens when 2 sitar students and a yogini go on a picnic? :) 

As we sat on one of the wooden picnic tables at the park by the lake, laid the table with the pretty tea set made in Japan (which i borrowed from mum) a basket of scones, cheese breads and some delicious rambutans, a book about history of amazing Asian gardens, a flask of hot ginger infused tea which we were just about to pour into the lovely cups when we spotted a guy nearby staring right into one of the palm trees behind us...we were wondering what he was doing standing there all alone. So we kept an eye on him while having our tea and buns. After a while we noticed that the guy was chatting away, still facing the tree and looking up at the sky and spreading his arms as though he was absorbing the energies around him...that's when my friend said "looks like he is talking to the tree...nothing to worry then, he is just one of us" And all three of us burst out laughing and said..oh yes, that's so true! 

We so love the trees that we go lie on the grass under the oldest raintrees for hours till it gets dark...just having some homemade snacks and drinks, sharing random stories and somehow, the things we chat about turns out to be the most interesting ones compared to stuff we talk  about when we meet elsewhere like restaurants or even our homes. No matter where it starts, the conversations somehow gets diverted into talking  about the universe and its magical realms, light, life, aliens, music, dance, colours, books, travelling, crystals, and so on..we usually do not realise the hours that passes till the security guards at the park come shining their torch lights on us prompting us to leave... and we would reluctantly pack our stuff only then realising how long we have been sitting there.

These picnics have reminded us of how life is as it is, before we thought everything needed to be captured in photographs or published on social media. Times when we had a meal simply by sharing the moment with a friend or family and not necessarily with the whole world to see. We wrote our experiences on our personal diaries (i mean the real ones) to be kept in a secret compartment of a drawer so our brothers will not read and make fun it! But now, we snap EVERY moment to be shared..and then forget to look at it again coz everyone is too busy snapping new pictures. To me pictures are precious...i love looking at old pictures because it contains so much stories and  those imperfect shots before digital cameras came, held the most interesting stories...one picture was enough to bring the whole atmosphere back, remembering everything we said or did on that particular day and how the chain of events led to that moment captured in the picture. One shot was enough to say it all. But now, we take hundreds of pictures and yet have no stories to tell coz everything is missed while we are staring at ourselves through those tiny lenses. The vastness of life can never be captured in a shot...it will always remain a tiny part of  the whole and yet we are deceived into believing that these glimpses could reflect the real experiences.

When you choose to arrange a pretty picnic basket and wear a lovely dress and your favourite accessory , do you do it so the pictures will look good or because you yourself should feel good. How about the friends who sit with you chatting and having tea, sharing the moment for real? Isn't that more important then to simply show the pictures to another person who wasn't even there? No matter how many pictures you shared, only you heard the bird cooing and scanned through the old cluster of bamboos to find where the sound was coming from. Only you felt the warmth in your heart when your friend brought a little card with a handwritten message which included a few lines of Irish Blessings especially for you, not because it was your birthday or any other celebration but simply coz it was a beautiful day out... only  you sat there looking at the ants crawling over blades of grass and said to your friend "These ants...will never be able to see the whole world with those tiny eyes..in fact they won't even see the whole person sitting above them coz we are too huge in its vision...if we were to explain the vastness of the universe and the planets humans have come to know ...wouldn't it be way beyond their capacity to imagine it even...would they believe you?? Isn't that how it is with human beings? We believe as much as we can see and deny that which we don't...but how small are we compared to this reality? We will never know" Now, how could a picture show this moment of truth you felt while sitting at the park? If we cant give the whole truth to another person who wasn't there...what is the point of pictures? 

I am not saying we should not take pictures...for i LOVE photography and how some shots bring the magic through it. I am only saying, we shouldn't miss the reality while trying to capture it. Enjoy the moments with all your heart and soul and you will never need photographs to keep the memories...take one picture that tells the story rather then a hundred random shots that says nothing. So that was our first picnic of the year 2019...more to come...more to share...soon :)