Trees and an Awakened Heart

I recently returned from Johannesburg, South Africa. While there, I helped lead a retreat. The retreat was at a place called Origins, about 45 minutes outside of Johannesburg, and located in an area referred to as “The Cradle of Humankind.” At Origins, heaven and earth join. A sacred whisper in the air causes one to pause, stand still, rest, and breathe. There is an echo of another story, an ancient story. An awakening to what is true and real. A holy remembering resonating to the core of one’s being. Forgotten and buried longings emerge. Abandoned and repressed desires take hold. The mind clears. The heart awakens. The body engages. 

The retreat center looks out onto a small mountain. At the base of the mountain is a forest. At the edge of the forest are four magnificent willow trees. They take your breath away. They are tall, majestic, and stand sentry for the cross that is situated in the middle. The cross is a 30-foot metal structure with Kyrie Eleison (“Lord, have mercy”) etched over and over on the cross. The cross stands on a base of rocks with a stone sign that reads, “BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.” The trees stand guard to the holy mountain. They provide refuge and sanctuary to birds and monkeys and humans. The trees echo a song of eternity which is heard deep in one’s soul.  They hold a hushed reverence that remembers and animates creation.

Situated close to the cross, the willow trees, and the edge of the forest is a grand labyrinth. The labyrinth is the largest and widest I have ever walked. In the center of the labyrinth, which represents the heart of God, there is a tree. Yes, a tree. I have fondly nicknamed it The Tree of Life. This name speaks of my deep desire to partake bodily of the life that the heart of God offers. I long to join my heart to God’s heart, for God’s desires to become my desires.

Each day, the trees breathed with me and held me as I postured myself before the cross. Each time I entered the prayer path of the labyrinth I noticed my heart slowly becoming more awake, more attuned, more alive. I recalled the old stories of creation. God creating and acting and ordering. God waking the world, the Garden, the Trees.

The more I remembered I realized that trees have a significant role in the biblical story. They are not passive objects. At the key hinge points in the biblical story, there’s usually a tree somewhere in the mix playing an active role. There is a tree at the center of the failure of humanity. The Ark. Mount Sinai. The temple. Messianic imagery. The Psalms. Parables of Jesus. His death, and on and on. Trees in Scripture are the most mentioned living thing after humans.

The ancient stories and age-old songs the trees held were breathed into the air and my heart awakened. The trees connected me with the heart of God.

In many ways, we have relegated the meaning of the “heart” to strong emotions that need to be tamed. We have also divided our hearts from our minds. But, things have not always been this way.

Henri Nouwen begins to re-orient us with the truth of old: “The word heart is used…in its full biblical meaning of that place where body, soul, and spirit come together as one.”

Russian Monk Igumen Chariton of Valamo also guides us back with wisdom: “The heart is the innermost man, or spirit. Here are located self-awareness, the conscience, the idea of God and of one's complete dependence on Him, and all the eternal treasures of the spiritual life.

Where the heart is, there is consciousness, attention, mind; there is the whole soul. When the heart is in God, then the whole soul is in God, and man remains in unceasing worship of Him in spirit and in truth.” 

The gospel writer Matthew sheds additional insight: “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—the seat of our consciousness by which our heart operates—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.” (Matthew 5:8)

The trees held me as my heart—the whole of me—awakened more deeply to what is real and what is true. About myself. God. The world. My co-creating work with God in this world.

I close with a prayer:

Living One Whose Love Pulses Through Creation,

Embraced in the center of your encompassing truth, we discover that in you there is no circumference. You can take it all. You embrace all dimensions of us and awaken us further into your way, your truth, and your abundant life. In Christ, show us how your Love pours into the sphere of life intersecting as a cross, embracing humanity as one. 

Amen

Are there places where you hear sacred whispers?
Have there been specific experiences when heaven came to you?
What awakens your heart?

Inspiration

When I am Among the Trees

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily. 

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often. 

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It's simple,” they say, “and you too have come into the world to do this,

to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.” 

-Mary Oliver 

Jeremiah 17:8 

“But blessed is the man who trusts me, God,
   the woman who sticks with God.
They’re like trees replanted in Eden,     putting down roots near the rivers—
Never a worry through the hottest of summers,     never dropping a leaf,
Serene and calm through droughts,     bearing fresh fruit every season.”

I am here to serve your soul in whatever ways you might need or long for … spiritual direction, spiritual companionship, leadership coaching, enneagram coaching, Ignatian Spiritual Exercises guide, and guided retreats. What does your soul need? What does your soul want?

Feeling the wisdom of the trees, Becky