Healers of the earth
After the body work: tai chi, 4 directions, dance? What do we call it? We went on our own to sit under a tree. When we came together in the A-frame the combined picture that was drawn was so beautiful that I wanted to share it with you all. Minutes of the meeting so to speak, just to let you know where we are.
We sat under Masasas and Figs and Mukwa and trees with no name
we saw their wounding; nails in the bark, swellings from insects eating their trunks from the inside
we saw their dying: The Mukwa (Nyamaropa)
the tree that stood proudly on the hill 32 years ago
the medicine tree that was visited by nyangas – who stripped off squares of her bark
now old and tired – surrounded by strong new trees competing for light and space
and the grace of her slow fading – the first dead branches filled with life of another kind.
We saw how they accommodated to spaces in the canopy
a dance of cooperative creative patterning
We saw them with gratitude
with hearts wide open
these magical cycling systems
moving water and air and light.
We felt their prickly rough bark
surprised at its soothing gentle touch.
We saw the immense height of the towering gum
roots firmly, widely rooted in foreign soil
at home in this forest of African trees
We saw our child hood:
the trees we had climbed, the fruit we had eaten
the books we will write for the new children
the woodlands we will grow for them to play
And there was a strange reaffirming of an ancient knowing
we were connected, if just for a short time,
to the healers of the earth.