Even in this dark and frozen time, I am alive and thriving. I am fully aware in the way of trees. My spirit never sleeps.

Here in my beloved home my roots reach deep into the soil. I do not question my existence. I do not worry. I do not fear. I simply am.

I do what trees everywhere do. I root to the earth and grow effortlessly toward the light. I respond to the seasons, sending out seeds in spring, bursting with growth in summer, releasing my leaves in fall, sleeping in the winter.

I am expansive. I am so much more than the magnificent tree you see before you. I feel what you humans would call love for this life.

This love is me. It is my energy, it is who I am. It may be invisible, but those who have the sensitivity, the ability to feel beyond the five senses will know it.

Life here on this patch of earth under the dome of the eternal sky, day and night, sun, moon, planets, and stars brings me what you humans might call joy.

Perhaps joy is my true purpose here…

…the joy of being, the joy of living, of expanding toward the light, the joy of knowing the precious gift of life!