Daily Aligning with Love, Abundance, and Peace #301

I’m grateful for the symbolic meanings of trees. I’ve felt grounded and centered around trees as far back as I can remember. I’ve always loved taking woods walks and being among them. When I was in my late twenties, I visited the largest Banyan tree I had ever seen. I grew up around Banyan trees, yet never fully appreciated them until that moment visiting the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Ft. Myers, Florida. I left with a seedling from that very tree. I watched the seedling grow into a large tree, but the tree wasn’t walking like the one that inspired me to get it. I remember a man at the local plant nursery telling me that it’s not spreading because the energy is being distributed to the top of the tree. If I wanted the tree to sprawl, I had to take off some of the deadweight from the top of the tree, because that is where the energy that is needed to spread is going to. I really wanted my tree to be free to be as magnificent as it could be.

This is a glimpse of the Banyan tree from the Edison and Ford Winter Estates. This is just a small portion of one very large sprawling tree. It’s called walking when a branch drops roots from the branches back into the soil.

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So I climbed up the tree.

I start by pulling all the dead branches down one by one. I felt like I was setting the tree free. All this energy was going into dead ends keeping the tree trapped from growing into her full potential. AHA-moment, I’m putting my energy into places that are keeping me trapped. I kept pulling branch by branch, I need to pay attention to where I’m putting my energy. I’m not living my life, I’m putting all my energy into trying to control things I have no control over, dead ends. I’m focusing my energy on other people’s lives–DEAD ENDS! I kept pulling, tears start filling my eyes as I start seeing clearly what I need to do to set myself free—GO WITHIN!

Once I removed the deadweight, the tree started to walk. That tree taught me a lesson about energy that will live with me for the rest of my life. It also changed the way I look at trees in general. The energy that travels through a trees roots (my beliefs); travels through the trunk (how I processes things); and into the branches (what I project out to the world). The health of the branches depends on what is coming in from the ground and in from the environment, which will then determine the life of the leaves and/or flowers (my experiences that come and go). I see the sun, air, water, moon, and clouds as the Universal Unseen, this can be God, spirits, collective energy, etc. This all influences the trees life. I remind myself that I don’t HAVE to fully understand the workings of the unknown, I just see them all as working together to serve the Universal highest good.

Now, I don’t have time to go into all my symbolic meanings related to trees, but I hope I gave you enough to see their overall influence on my journey. I find every time I write about them, I go a little deeper. That’s the beauty of all these symbolic meanings is that they can grow, change, expand, and evolve over time.

I often remind myself that all our symbolic meanings for things are going to be a little different based on what we need to understand and process at the time. It’s not my business to judge other people’s symbolic meanings for things. I like to look at how symbolic meanings can work in my life to help me serve the highest good. I believe that tapping into symbolic meanings is one of the ways the Divine communes with me. This is one of the reasons one of my favorite places to be is in the woods. I tend to find some meaning in nature that serves the highest good.

Today, I commit to embracing the symbolic meanings of trees. One of the things I love doing is putting my hands on the trunk of a tree and feeling the tree’s energy while thanking it for it’s service to our planet. I love looking at old trees and thinking about everything they have felt energetically over the centuries. I feel the AWE when I just stop and look at their magnificence. Today, I’m going to do a grounding and centering exercise I love using the imagery of a tree. Here’s how I do it:

I go outside and put my bare feet on the ground
Take a deep breath in
While I release my breath, I imagine my energy creating roots in the Earth
I visualize my roots going as deep as I can
I breathe in and imagine the purest energy of the Earth coming up through my roots, into my trunk (my body), and through my branches (limbs)
I repeat until I feel grounded in a peaceful and light-filled energy.

I love this reminder to stay grounded, centered, and aligned with the energy of love, abundance, and peace, because that is what sets me free.