The Memory of Trees
I’ve been deep in thought for weeks. Slowly feeling like this new place can become our home. Watching someone else’s garden begin to speak. What treasures did she plant—that question has been with me since last October.
There’s an abundance of rhododendrons and azalea—not things I would have planted but perhaps I would have if the land hadn’t been deer fenced—one of the first things we did here. Not just because of deer but mostly because of our two wildly adventurous and enthusiastic Weimaraners.
Today I was in the front garden weeding out the buttercups entwined with what I suspect are crocosmia and irises. I could never successfully grow irises at the farm. Here they are firmly in place and I look forward to welcoming them when they bloom.
The Japanese lilac tree sweeps generous armfuls of blossoms in a giant swoop across the garden. The fragrance of lilacs weaves through the arubutus moving out towards the road and down to the mailboxes. The lilac was alive. With bees, butterflies, hummingbirds.
The bees were inches from my head as I stooped and pulled out plants growing in the wrong places. Each plant a soft message whispered: sorry, you can’t grow here, tell the others. Eventually I begin to add the bark mulch, I love how quickly it provides a tidy backdrop for all the plant beings while also helping to preserve water and add nutrients to the soil.
As I shoveled wheelbarrows full of bark mulch I wondered where the trees grew that had provided this mulch. Did the scent of the bark carry memories of some far wilderness site, of a clearcut in the middle of Vancouver Island. Did the bark carry the memory of eagles nesting in its branches, or ravens standing watch, or the call of cougars or the soft footsteps of deer and elk or the buzzing of bees.
I felt a sadness for these unknown trees whose dress had been delivered to my new home in giant white bags. I tell myself at least all parts of the tree are being used. At least their memories will become embedded into this new garden, perhaps their stories to be whispered through the fragrance of the lilac tree.
Later as I looked through the photos I’d taken of the lilac tree. Blurry photos of the bees zooming from flower to flower. Did you know that flowers give off an electrical charge that alerts the bees as to which ones haven’t been visited yet?
As I looked at one of the last photos I’d taken, I noticed a faint rainbow across the garden, perhaps the spirits of the trees were making themselves known.
Forget-Me-Not: Clear Seeing
Forget-Me-Not asks us to be present in the moment and to begin to see the beauty of the small which reflects the beauty of the whole. It reminds us that we are a sacred being in the circle of life. You are as necessary to the unfolding of the world as the Forget-Me-Not flower is to the Earth. You are here to share the beauty and the presence of your soul.
The Eco Heart Oracle is my own deck with messages from 48 flowers from nature, find it here.