Situating Ourselves in Place

Take a moment to ground yourself.

Close your eyes if you feel comfortable. 

Take a deep breath. Feel the slight movement in your body as air enters in, filling your body from the inside. Slowly release the air, starting with a contraction in your stomach and slowly moving out through your mouth.

Think about where your body is in relation to the world around you.

Feel your body in space. Think of the feeling of contact your body has with the environment. Imagine yourself as an aura of energy, outside of your body. Feel yourself move downward towards the ground, slowly floating further and further. What lays below the floor, or ground, where you are? If you’re inside, what lies beneath the structure of this building? Further still, what is beneath the surface of the ground? 

Imagine now that your aura moves through the ground, passing insects, rocks, and root systems. You follow one of those root systems up into the body of a very old tree. You’re still in the same place, but now you are rooted to the land. Think of all the rings of your trunk, each holding the memory of this exact place. What would happen if we were to play these rings like a film from the beginning? What would you see over your lifetime as this tree?

Use the space that follows (or a blank page) to write or draw the story of this tree.

Think of what you would experience, the relationships you would have, and the feelings you might have in relation to these experiences. Where did you originate? What does your future look like?

Now that you have imagined your own life as a tree, how might you think about approaching trees and other beings of nature with a sense of inquisitive wonder? What stories do other trees hold? How could they impart their wisdom onto us as human beings?