Communion and Oneness – Being Present

"Tree Being", 2015, by Bettina

Watercolor on paper

Have you had a moment in nature, whether with an animal, a flower, a dew drop, the wind, a mountain or any other nature being that changed you, that lifted you out of the ‘ordinary’ and into the miraculous presence of being?

I remember, years back, was it in 2008? I was in Maui, for the first time in this lifetime in an Hawaiian island.  The tropical beauty, the wild, untamed nature of the Pacific Ocean, a flora and fauna that I hadn’t seen before. I was running alongside the ocean on a high cliff road. From up there, I would hear whale song. During the two weeks of my stay, I had gotten so used to seeing them jump. It was my last day on the island, a clear blue-sky morning with a slight breeze from the ocean. My body enjoying the run, I silently communicated with the whales and asked them to jump for me one more time. Barely having finished the thought, a huge humpback whale emerged from the water, jumped up high and landed full length with a big splash on the surface. I stopped and watched him, tears of joy running down my cheeks. Yes! Thank you, my friend! I was one with his power and strength, and his enthusiasm of life.

I just came back from Costa Rica. Another beautiful, tropical, volcanic place on the planet. We went hiking in a Nature Preserve one day. Our guide led us to an area with the name "Spirit Trees". A better expression would be ‘a space’, as there was a presence. I saw the gigantic trees from afar, and I got really excited about seeing them from close-up. I started taking pictures of the north side of the main tree, already fascinated by the shadow side of this huge being with long, mossy ‘beards’ growing from it's branches swaying in the breeze. Our guide motioned me to come to the other side, the sunny side. Reluctantly, I stopped my camera, slightly annoyed about the interruption. I walked through the grasses to where our guide stood and there, I turned around. In the moment I faced the tree from the South side, I got ‘hit’ in my heart with such gentle power that I briefly stopped breathing and started crying with tears of joy. 

I sensed right away that the tree was giving me a gift that opened my heart and destroyed and uncreated millennia of limitations and separations, disappointments and crushed dreams. My mouth open, I stood there for the longest moment in no-time, receiving what was gifted to me in long waves of acoustic energy and transformation. I expanded, and my body breathed deeper than ever before. A connection was established that day, with the kindness of the tree being. My impulsive, enthousiastic thought was that I had to go back there and spend as much time as I could with the tree. Funny. As it turned out, there was no rush. There was no need. There was no 'time' involved. In the many nights that followed, I bi-located there with ease while my body rested in bed, I received more transmissions, and to the day, the connection has been uninterrupted. 

Like acoustical veins weaving me into the web of life. I am so grateful for this precious and miraculous gift. How did I get so lucky? The Tree Being has changed me. We have been in regular communication ever since. I was being prepared for what followed yet some time later that required an unusual strength of my heart, not only physically. Three weeks after my encounter with the tree, my body needed to rest in bed from what seemed to be flu symptoms. My questions brought me the awareness of this ‘flu’ being something different, some adjustment and transformation. During several feverish nights, my heart was beating with such vigilance and strength that I wondered whether it was strong enough to receive all this change. I was in the tree, while at the same time, the tree was in my room. We had a direct heart connection. 

Like an ancient healer, the tree held me, sang for me, talked to me in silent motion, while my ears sang and my heart danced in wild swirls to a new drum beat. I received so much, more than I have ever allowed myself to receive. Walls down, bare, open and vulnerable I laid in the clear night sky mountain house bed. My choice was calm and clear. I chose to stay. Not knowing how it would all unfold, what the path was and where my journey would go, I chose no matter what, to stay and continue. A choice that had seemed strenuous and complicated before was now possible to choose with ease and no point of view. 

With the strength of my Tree Friend who I know has my back, I be … no matter what and no matter how, where, when and why .... Bettina. 

"Tree Being" was painted in honor and celebration of my tall, old and wise friend who has been telling tales of sorrow, separation, courage and phenomenally present space of being, a symphony of infinite possibility I sing now in each and every molecule of my body and being.