Continued... part four...
after lunch we all quickly headed out again to listen and track for which tree might be calling, if at all... we were praying for one to become a sacred community drum... we split up in a few directions... i think we were were all feeling that the day was getting away from us - as it was rapidly getting late in the day... and i know we were feeling a sense of urgency... today was the day if it was to happen...
i and a few others were heading back up the trail towards the wise teacher-tree and first fallen one we had met earlier... and with the white wolf drum in hand, i began to sound her voice that echoed far up and into the vast forest... i was attempting to connect somehow in this unfamiliar place to help assist in any way i could...
Rick had brought an axe and small chainsaw to check the inner wood of the first fallen tree... a few of us gathered around to watch the process... the saw went in so easily we could tell that there was much rot on the outside... probably about 4-6 inches worth... he did cut out a good piece that seemed sound... but we weren't sure this was the "one"... tho' it deemed possible... but i didn't feel we were getting a clear "yes" yet...
we thought to wander down into the forest deeper to check out some old stumps as well.. we were guided to one large one that looked promising but only to find it was way too rotten in the middle... navigating through the thick brush and uneven ground was difficult for my city legs and i had to stop bushwacking... so, i went back to the teacher-tree to ask for some help this time... i again stood before her in silence, mindfully asking for any assistance in a wordless way... and then felt a trusting back that said "whatever was supposed to be.. was meant to be"... well... whatever that was supposed to mean, i didn't have a clue... Valerie also made some offerings at this point too...
now alone on the path... i continued to drum off and on while walking back down towards the cabin and back again... i had the urge to sing or chant right out loud at one point but didn't... i sang from within instead... with intent, sending my silent song out with the echoes of my drum sounding... i was starting to wonder where everyone was... i knew a few had gone back up to the first tree with more tools to start digging out around the base of it hopefully to cut a round off to see how it was... but where were the others?.... where was Joan and Pamela?... and Richard?...
i decided to head off to the outhouse for some much needed respite... and once settled there... suddenly out of the blue... i could hear someone off in the distance, calling out my name over and over... "ah geesh!" ..."this is real good timing", i thought as i muttered to myself... i booted the door open part way with my leg calling back out to wherever they were into the woods with an echo... and so, once i was back out the door... we eventually found each other - it was Pamela and Joan on another path just off the main trail...
both Joan and Pamela were excited to report that they had maybe found the "one!"... but it wasn't on this property but the one lot over and beckoned me to come back with them to see... where...they had discovered a large tree that had been blown down during the past season's winter wind storms... Pamela called out into the forest for the others to come as well... earlier, a couple of times Joan had been guided to go look on this other trail and the two of them eventually joined up together... then, apparently, a small tree frog appeared, somewhere on the trail... pointing them further along the trail where they finally saw the tree...
we called back up the main trail again to the gang at the other tree to come with us and off we went... it wasn't a long walk over to their neighbour's property where it quickly opened up to a wide-open clearing.... where it was clear that many trees had been taken for lumber for the buildings on this neighbour's lot...
Pamela and Joan pointed over a ways into the clearing amongst a large mess of mud, scrub, logs and machinery and there she was... lying on an angle down, a huge blown-down sitka spruce stump, maybe close to 4 feet in diameter and 6-8 feet long or more... the long length of her straight trunk had been cleanly sawed off and the long piece of her once-body was laying nearby on the ground off to one side... what was left of her was completely uprooted where she had blown down and her spiral-intertwined once-were roots were rudely exposed way up high in the air almost like she was naked... and i had this sudden sense that we shouldn't even be looking... somehow, it just didn't feel right to see her that way...
i remember thinking in that moment that this tree was possibly the "one"... as we slowly walked up to her... i was feeling very tentative - but with a sense of excitement too... as we slowly gathered around her closer, i don't think we knew what to do in that moment... i know i didn't... my heart felt numb, empty and sad... i guess seeing how she was so "ripped out of the mother" and being so "sawed off" seemed pretty severe, brutal and a violation... a good portion of the bark had fallen off the sawed-off end exposing a lusterous reddish tan wood... she was truly beautiful... i also noticed that there seemed to be a bulge on one side of her trunk... could this at all possibly be one of the trees i saw in my dream a few weeks ago?...
we put our heads back on for a moment, and surveyed that this amazing tree definitely could be the "one"... and discussed logistics of how to cut a round off the one end... Rick went off to confirm and find his neighbour... as he had apparently already said to Richard and Joan he would be okay for us to take what was left... we heard later that the neighbour would have burnt what was left anyway...
while waiting for Rick to return... we walked away form the tree, i think still in a strange numbed-out aweness and walked around the site a bit... realizing the work ahead of us and how to get her home to Kamloops, etc... Ann, myself, Joan and Valerie started back up and passed by the tree once again... Pamela was still sitting with the stump and called over to us asking for us to come and do something for the tree together... "Can we sing or pray to her... please?"...
we immediately went back over and gathered around her... i was guided to gently place the grandmother white wolf drum on the ground next to her open sawed-off wounded end and then silently placed tobacco to the sacred directions on the drum's round top... we all layed our hands on what was left of her trunk and closed our eyes to connect... i shared with my sisters that i could sense that she was breathing... about a minute or so later, Valerie spoke aloud and said that the tree was still in much shock and pain... that this great tree had not been ready to fall when it did... then asked me to send our vision and intent to the tree... to let her know why we were there and what her purpose could be... i took a big breath and on my out-breath, connected to and breathed the vision to her from a place deep in my heart, through my hands back to her, and asked for her blessing... together, we all felt an immediate sigh of relief rise back from her and she said "yes"...
in that same moment, Rick had also just returned with his neighbour and they both confirmed that indeed this tree was available to become our sacred ayllu drum...
wow! ...we have found you dear one and you have found us!
we learned later that this blessed tree is a "windwalker" as Ann explained in an earlier post... and so, that night together, we named our soon-to-be sacred ayllu drum, "windwalker"...
definitely... more later...
with much light and love,
weaver (((o)))
