Grandmother Cottonwood

Grandmother Cottonwood speaks of her life as a tree.

The creek was much closer to my chosen place so long ago when what I knew was to fly on the breeze. I began as a tiny windblown seed that was carried to this precise place at the right time for my beginnings. All that a seed needed was here. Abundant rain, deep soil, the daily wheel of the sun blessing my growing with warmth and light. My seed knew it was home.

The unfolding of life began within my tiny seed before there were outward signs- silent unseen stirrings! (Life will not be denied or suppressed. It must have its way.) Roots being pulled as if by a magnet, uncoiling from deep within the blueprint of being that has served my magnificent ancestors for millennia. Then the great unfolding toward the light, always pulled toward the light, stretching between my two poles, the sun, giver of light above and the deep sustenance of the earthy soil below.

Each year after the season of rest, I grew taller, firmer, sturdier in my roots, broader, my woody bark growing denser and thicker. I began life with two tender leaves, and now I have countless leaves upon my crown each shaped like your symbol for the heart. See how much I love this life!!

Many creatures gathered around me as the years increased. Barred owl, dragonfly, squirrel, deer, vulture, field-mouse, tree-frog, all manner of songbirds and insects, spider, grasses, mullein, milkweed, willow, cockle-burr, thistle, violets, black-eyed susan, sycamore, oak, thorny locust. We are a community of life, our energies and forms interwoven with the ebb and flow of sunshine, shadow, moonlight, starshine, sudden driving rains, glorious heavenly blue skies. We feed each other, we shelter and sustain our web in this magnificent dance you call life.

I delight in my place here in this web of infinite beauty. I am one with all things.