What the Tree Told Me-The Three Phases of the Self,

Part 2-The Individual Self

 

In the beginning was the spark. A collision between two opposites. The interaction of two different materials, by friction, starts the interaction, but that’s not enough. The tiny spark must be held against a softer material, called tinder. Not the app. Not that. But real burnable material, that accepts the spark, nurturing it into a tiny flame. A unique, never before occurring little flame, that has within it, even then, the potential to become a raging fire of individual perception.

And all that energy is contained and held within the casing of a seed. All life starts with a seed, but not all seeds contain the spark. Some of them lose it through lack of sufficient tinder, not enough kindling to keep it warm. Life requires nurturing, throughout its whole cycle. But it’s particularly fragile in the beginning. Anything can blow out its spark. The little seed needs water, good soil, types of fungi as a nursemaid. And warmth from the Sun. Once it is strong enough. its own internal fire will warm it from the inside out.  But it needs to breath. All fire must have oxygen. The soul needs to have the space to breathe. “If it doesn’t breathe it will die” as the song goes.

Even as a full-blown fire, that can happen. A fire must have fuel to keep it going. Even after the seed shoots, there is so much that can happen to wipe it out, it’s a wonder any trees grow, any plants, animals, or for that matter, people. People are actually animals that forgot what they were. All of us need ou spark to be kept alive by tendering, nursing, caring, whether that is from the Earth herself, the rain, the Sun, or parents. It’s a long road from the beginning until we all reach that point where we know ourselves, trees, or people. But come to know ourselves we must, if we are to fulfill the promise contained within the spark. Nothing else can be us. That uniqueness only exists once, ever.

You might be thinking “But all trees are alike. They are just trees”. But they are not. Everything that has ever received the spark, became the spark, is different in all ways. We may not at first see it, but are we really looking? I think not. In a forest each tree finds its place, fills a void, completes the whole. At least, for the time that it is its role to fulfill. Other trees will replace it, but they will be different ones, with different shapes, sizes, and energetic potential to fulfil. Its shape, both physically and energetically, is so important to the time in which it exists, that nothing can take its place in the forest, or indeed the world. But we’re not just talking about trees here, are we?

The importance of this uniqueness cannot be overstated. It is the first stage of being for all. As humans, the spark that occurs between a man and a woman starts the journey for another spark to ignite. But it takes much more to keep it alive to grow into a flame and then a fire. There are so many things that can douse it. There is the obvious: neglect, abuse, misfortune. But just like there are many trees still standing where the life has left them, no longer able to give forth new shoots, there are many people still standing that are alive on the outside only. People who have been bonsaied, having had their roots cut so that their potential to become themselves are limited to smaller pots than they had the potential to fill. Limited by the small space they are allowed by culture to take up.

We talk about being aspirational, successful, innovative. But it’s only in the context of the commercial context we are brought up in. So much so, that much of the sparks and fires are put out because their unique attributes don’t fit the current model of society. Society is wrong. We need every soul that is created to give their gifts to us as a whole. Like a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces, we will never see the whole picture with accepting that piece of it in whatever shape it arrives.

We are born to be ourselves in all their shapes and sizes, beauty and colour. By the time we reach adolescence we are confused by the messages that keep coming at us from the outside. We are in conflict between being authentically who we are: coming from the ‘author within’, or compliance with the model that we are brought up believing is the ‘right way’ to be. No wonder we are angry, lashing out at all the external voices, doing things we wouldn’t necessarily feel to do because it gets back at all the authority, that is not authentic, but manipulative and bullying. The flame inside is burning us up. If we are not careful it will consume itself and us with it. Many have gone that way. They live, but their soul is dead, or dying.

But the force of Life gives us ways through. Opportunities that, if we pay attention, will lead us back onto our unique path, allow us to find our purpose, releasing the potential contained within the journey we were always meant to travel. We may miss the signs many times, but Life does not give up on us. We may become too unconscious to notice, but they are always there, tugging away at our feelings, offering to lead us out of our confusion.

Sometimes it requires a crisis, where all the things we have been told fail us, leaving us in an isolated place where we trust nothing. If we will but shut off all the things we have learned, listening for a deeper knowing in our senses and feelings, we will find what it is we can always trust: the flame within, the spark of the divine that is who we truly are. And we will find our way. Nothing surer. We were born to.