Just Be

I went with my friend to the woods today. I went to hug a tree! Something I've heard was very special, but not something I wanted to do with all my neighbors around. One close friend deep in the forest was just perfect. She went to skip stones across the river.

I stood before this magnificent creature and looked up at it. I felt very small. Standing there I asked, "Do you ever hug? Or is that not something you'd care to do today?"

The tree stood there silently and I felt a little foolish. Whoever heard of trees hugging people? Just something over-imaginative silly girls do! But, I suddenly wanted to hug this tree more than anything else in the world, so I asked again. "I guess what I'm asking is may I hug you?"

In my mind, because even I know that trees don't talk, I heard. "Sure we can hug."

I didn't wait for a second chance. Walking around the tree, so I couldn't see my friend and feel self-conscious (shy people sometimes get scared around other people) I put my arms around the tree and lay my head against its trunk.

The bark was rough, but strangely warm against my fingertips. My arms barely spanned a quarter of its girth. I closed my eyes and allowed myself to just be.

It was as if the tree took me in. I felt as though I were sinking into a deep dark silence, rich with time, thick with life. I felt its pain when the hole in front was eaten out by something. I felt the wind that had twisted it branches and the scars lightning had left. I felt the strength of the earth far below where the oldest roots lay nursing. Never having left its parent, the tree stood tall and proud. The tingle of the new buds popping through old wood pulsed through my heart and I felt joy. And then there was a sense of peace, of patient waiting, of wisdom older than time that said, "Be my child. Just be. That is enough."

The tree withdrew, I was alone, tears ran down my face. I would never be so grand as a tree. I, who could never be so still, or patient, or wise, should feel blessed to even touch shoulders with one of God's greatest beings. How dare I ask for more? And then I remembered the words, "Be my child. Just be. That is enough."

Maybe it was okay to ask for that hug. Look what I received.