Tag: Healing Presence

• Hanging Out with Trees

  Summer reminds me of childhood, does it you? There is something about the smell in the air in the morning that reminds me of climbing trees. There was one tree in particular in the backyard of the house I grew up in that was easy to climb–inviting me, it seemed. It had a limb at exactly the right height for pulling myself up, then hanging by my knees, swinging around and dropping down to the ground. How I loved that tree. I can still feel how it felt to hug her cool butternut bark. All these years later it is clear to me that she was communing with me. She didn’t speak in words, of course, but she had a presence.

  We don’t  usually think of the body as comprehending deep truths. But the body is wise. In really challenging times, we tend fall back on our earliest way of relating to the world, which is not in words, but through the body. We go off by ourselves and have a good cry. We go for a walk outside.

  In a time of overwhelm or uncertainty, in the midst of a crisis, even confirmed atheists may find themselves looking up at the sky and the trees, thinking, “Help me.” The body innately knows to how to seek. We reach in two directions: inward and outward. We seek a connection to a living world, a greater life.

  Research that reveals that trees are not isolated beings struggling for survival, as Darwin and others once thought. They live as members of vast interconnected communities, sharing nutrients and information across species in a system that some call the “wood wide web.”  Some beings in this system, especially big old trees fondly called “mother trees,” are benevolent and very generous. A few others, Black Walnuts and orchids among them, steal more than their share of resources or even spread toxins, just as in human communities.

  This week, if you wish, go for a walk and look at the trees. Allow yourself to know that they are giving us oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide. Know that they are communicating with each other and helping each other in the face of their challenges. Allow yourself to notice that they are also patiently, oh so patiently, offering to communicate with us. What are they expressing?

  Notice how it feels to experience yourself as a body that is part of a greater ecosystem, a greater life, opening to receive impressions and wisdom and sustenance from other beings. Just for one wild moment entertain the possibility that you beloved on the earth.

  (Photo courtesy Wikimedia )

  July 16, 2019

  family, Healing Presence, Inspiration, Nature, Space, Tracy Cochran, trees, truth

  ---

• The Power that Reveals

  Now seems a good time to gently remind people that presence can be a refuge and resource. On paper, it may not seem like much. The Oxford dictionary defines presence as “the state or fact of existing, occurring or being present.” This seems so rudimentary, just bare existence, as if you are showing up at an early morning classes and you are 18-years-old.

  There you are, more or less upright in your seat, but aching and tired, possibly a little hung over or anxious or depressed. You are young and a night owl by nature, and prone to extremes. Being present mostly brings an uncomfortable awareness of the gulf between your state and the vast humanity of Shakespeare or Buddha or whomever is under discussion. You may vow to improve, to do the reading or meditate or get more sleep. You sense miserably that you have a great deal of work to do.

  The Latin root, praesentia,means “being at hand.”  You can do this, you think. But you want to do so much more. And by you, of course, I mean me. Over the years, improvements did happen: no more smoking, fewer hangovers and harsh words, more equanimity and honesty. Was it growing older or conscious growth? It was both. And yet slowly in the midst of all the changes, another shift of understanding and view took place.

  The understanding of practice shifted from being a means of self-perfection to a way of seeing the imperfection—a way of seeing myself in context. Presence became vibrant and open. It became something more than a healing pause, more than the calm after tears, a glimpse of sky behind the clouds of thought. I began to see that being present is the way to have a real relationship with life.

  “I felt in need of a great pilgrimage, so I sat still for three days,” wrote the Persian poet Hafiz. Presence is the wordless answer to our deepest questions. Even if we just sit still for three minutes, coming home to the body and the breath and our present moment experience, we let the great healing forces flow in.

  At the moment, even if we choose not to follow the news, we are aware of struggle and unhappiness across the land. We may feel crazed and lonely and afraid that truth and justice are lost for good. This is the best possible time to be present in the most basic way.

  “Power doesn’t always corrupt,” biographer Robert Caro once told The Guardian. “Power can cleanse. What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals.”

  Touching the earth of our present moment experience, we remember that we are not isolated but dwelling in relationship with life. We see that there are truths that can never be covered over. We know that life is flowing and that more will be revealed.

  October 4, 2018

  Healing Presence, Mindfulness, Mindfulness Meditation, Power, Present Moment Awareness, the power of presence, The Power that Reveals, the practice of presence, Tracy Cochran

  ---