When I hugged a tree.....

On one sunny day, I was out for a walk, amidst the green treasure of this planet when a humongous tree took my breath away. Something in that tree pulled me closer towards it. There was nothing specifically different about the tree but a need arose in me to get up close to this tree and truly know what it is.

 At first, I was hesitant to touch the tree which seemed full of rough edges, enveloped in layers of soil and dirt; tiny life thriving inside the deep ridges of its bark and completely utter nonsensical I would look if someone saw what I was doing.

But the idea of knowing that tree overpowered my hesitance. Somehow, I just had to do it. I then started stepping closer to the tree and looked up at its great spread up in the blue sky. The tree was looking back at me in encouragement as if nudging a small child to take her baby step. The expanse of that tree was so vast that it covered a diameter of around 5 meters around me, sheltering me in its shade like a big grandfather.

Something told me to feel the tree and not analyse it in measurements. I then kept one of my palms on its bark and shut down my babbling concerned mind. The thrumming life running through that very bark felt real to my palms, like calming and soothing flow of water. I was enthralled at that pure touch.

Before I knew it, I embraced that wondrous tree with both my hands, my heart touching the heart of that beautiful life.

And there…..there I felt something, which I do not have words for.

An enormous peace settled deep inside me, melting away all my worldly concerns and worries. The tree just sucked all of the superficialness out of me. It stripped me bare to my core until it was just the tree and me. As I slowly synced myself to the heartbeat of that tree, I felt its love reverberating from its core to mine. The peace felt initially then got transformed into unbounded, unconditional love that surrounded me, like it always was mine. With every new breath that I took, the love multiplied and enveloped me into an inexplicable cocoon of warmth and support. The tree reminded me, that it always was here and always will be. That it always has and will support and guide me no matter who or what I was. The absoluteness of that love was out of this world. The divinity of that moment felt supreme, bonding me to the tree in oneness. It was now difficult to find the separation between us.

The tree was always a part of mine and I was part of it. It seemed that we knew each other from lifetimes and probably even before that. The love we shared did not limit us in any way and reminded us of our presence beyond the embrace that we shared at that moment.

Despite my brain nagging me of my clothes sticking in the ridges of the tree or the sounds of passer-by’s, I remained in that embrace for longer than I had imagined. It felt like the most natural thing to do.

When I opened my eyes, the serenity of this magnificent union had transformed me into a calmer, centred being, rooting me right back into the mother earth; just like my beloved tree!