Identity, and Those Tree People

“She probably hugs trees,” they said with an eye roll.

“Great! Which one is she?”

Some wonder what’s up with the whole tree thing. And I’m actually not writing about the tress right now. I’m writing a little thingy about tree people, and others. (You’d know who you are.)

That we can connect with trees (and other plants) on a deeply personal level is mind-blowing, considering the stuff most of us were taught to know from childhood as reality and fantasy. Even upon deciding to seek a shamanic mentor as a mature adult, I believed at the time, that plant communication was a step further than I was willing to go.

(Shamanism had other plans.) 🙂

The thing about communicating with trees is that you have to be willing to put aside any ideas about your identity. This doesn’t mean you can’t have an identity. It means that you need to let go. Let go of whatever you think you know, and just be with that tree. That is when an entire world, of which you may not have previously known, opens up. Your reality then changes. Your identity then changes. With every bit of new and healing insight, your reality changes in a way that is comforting. It changes toward “more” and “better.” It changes the way you see problems, both big and small.

These kind of partial-shamanic-state experiences can vary and are different for everybody of course. But, in a world full of identity and the protection of it at any cost, I enjoy knowing when there’s somebody around who is in the practice of letting go of theirs – just long enough to come away with an improved sense of self.

It’s the stuff of healing. Identity, communication, something higher (however defined) are all involved in personal or spiritual growth.

Perhaps, tree people (for one example) have at some point in life become unafraid to let go of whatever self-identity they’ve worked really hard to obtain thus far because they’ve learned that their own current thoughts are not “the end.”

There is more to our story – to all our stories. And there is a rich history that waits for each of us.

Sometimes, it’s a good idea to embrace that sudden sense of adventure when it comes. Try a new (safe) thing. Make a connection with an aspect of Earth. See what it’s about. Find another piece of you that you didn’t know existed.

Tree people, plant people, cloud people, wolf people, all people… We can all connect with a piece of our world a little deeper, and in doing so, we connect more deeply with ourselves.

How do you “connect?”

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