Tree of Life

Tree of Life - When trees burn, they leave the smell of heartbreak in the air ― Jodi Thomas

Trees have been my life long companions, my nature mother and father. The metaphysical meaning of the image of the Tree of Life is simple... You are a child of the Universe. You have the right to exist. You have the responsibility to grow to be yourself. The Tree of Life can be thought of as your own Cosmic Family tree, telling ancient stories of your shared roots which link you to the past, showing your connected struggles and aspirations; your desires to reach for the light, reaching for the stars. The meaning of the Tree of Life as a spiritual symbol is well known and, like the tree itself, many branched and deeply rooted.

As a child in Africa, a memory of our fruit orchard burning surfaces. When I was at boarding school in Bulawayo Zimbabwe, for a time my mother lived in Gwelo Zimbabwe, managing the general store there. We lived on a farm with an orchard of fruit trees. The bush is dry with brown burnt grass and scrub thorn trees and other native trees. There I was to find a Baobab, my darling Boaboa’s family. Our house was a brick building with red concrete stained and polished floors.  A couple of steps lead from the garden up to the veranda that has a roof to shelter from rain at the front door and from the burning sun in summer. It is a three bed-roomed house, wonderful to have my own room. A basic kitchen, separate living and dining room. All the walls were plastered and painted cream, the kitchen a murky green. Nothing flash, but a whole house to ourselves with this vast land and fruit filled orchard.  

My father visited us for a while, how did he find us? I’m not sure why my mother let him come to stay. For an adult, at times I questioned her judgement. Hard to know her motives of letting him back in. However, this lasted only for a week, as he set the orchard of fruit trees alight, god only knows what he was doing? Maybe chasing out the snakes, burning the weeds under the trees? Was it his anger in his heart, that set the fruit trees alight?  The flames spread up the tree trunks and we had to start running with buckets of water. The thick grey smoke started to billow into the sky. A veil of darkness as the smoke swallows up the whole sky and a fierce fire flickered, flared, leapt, spat, shower of sparks, wound itself around the trees, devoured the trees.  The ash started to float to the ground coating the dry brown earth with a grey jacket. Some trees were completely lost, but fortunately some remained.  My father did not stay on after that. He high tailed it to God knows where, I certainly didn’t know. I don’t remember seeing him after that for a very long while. He left us with a stench in our nostrils, a burnt land and ‘heartbreak in the air’,

Even though rooted in the earth plane, we are reaching for the Spiritual Realms. Here we are each alone... there we are one. The Cosmic Family tree, guides us to reach for freedom and goodness.