Tree Gazing

Trees speak to me.  A soothing rustle of leaves creates calming dappled sunshine.  Simply laying beneath a tree listening and feeling always centers and soothes me.

Listening to the peaceful sound of leaves whispering in the wind.

Feeling profound strong comfort of the Earth.

All is well here.  All is how it should be.

What a gift to simply take a moment and breathe while watching patterns of the sky and sun shifting between the leaves.  Feeling the steady love of Mother Earth cradling and nourishing every cell while letting go into the ground.

My family is truly blessed to live in Colorado where we have easy access to rich beautiful forests.  On a recent hike we found a lovely aspen grove.  Into it we climbed to find a forest floor strewn with soft plants and leaves.  Here we nestled down together for a bit of tree gazing and centering.  The wind blowing high above in the tree tops provided a lovely show as we watched the trees dancing and swaying.  We let go of the craziness of the school year.  We let go of schedules and stress.  We let go of concerns.

Pretty soon we found ourselves taking about the beauty of nature and how we can help to preserve it.  My six-year-old decided that we should have a "nature day" at least once a week.

"What would you do?" I asked.

"Give nature love and water!" came a vigorous happy reply.

Wonderful...

At the edge of the aspen grove was a very amazing tree growing in an interesting shape.  What does it look like to you?

We thought maybe a headless warrior...

As summer moves along and eventually transforms into autumn, I hope we have many more family moments, many more simple pleasantly easy afternoons tree gazing.

Fun Fact ~ Aspens are one of the (if not the) largest organism living on Earth.  They grow connected under the Earth.  So when you see a grove of many aspens, you may only be seeing one living organism!