I saw this video posted earlier this week and can't get it out of my head. The filmmakers, Bruno D'Amicis and Umberto Esposito, kept a camera trained on an individual tree for a year straight then created a short video of the highlights. Here are some thoughts I've had on this very simple yet beautiful movie the past few days:
-The post I found the video on was titled, "Man Filmed a Tree In The Woods For a Year and Captured Things Most People Will Never See." Most of these things most people will never see are animals that get up close and personal with the tree: deer, bears, foxes, wolves, even a wild boar. I guess where you live makes a big difference, but I see the first three in the wild around me at least occasionally. If you want to see Nature and feel a part of it, you have to leave the city once in a while!
-These animals do not rub up on me, or scratch their claws against me like the bear cub, as they do with the tree. The tree is able to witness these encounters because it offers no resistance. A tree, despite its size, offers no threat to any creature. It inspires no fear. It will not even defend itself. As my beautiful life-partner Blair once said, trees do not suffer. They may feel pain, but they do not react to it or internalize it. Pain is a biological function but suffering is a product of the ego. Animals sharpen their claws and teeth on the bark, birds shit on the leaves constantly, all kinds of beasts urinate on its base and roots, human animals chop them down and burn them, and still the tree does nothing. The tree abides all.
-The tree is also inseparable from the environment around it. Its roots plunge deep into the Earth and its branches strike out high into the sky, but it holds its one position, unmoving and silent. If we wish to feel connected to Nature and experience it as the trees do-- to see what they see-- we must also practice unmoving and silence, literally and figuratively. In order to feel one with Nature we must go beyond our individual ego and keep our mind still and quiet on that oneness, suppressing the constant thoughts of the loud, jabbering mind.
-The subtitle of the post declares, "The forest comes alive around this one 'special' tree." Isn't this kind of missing the point? It's not that this tree was special and that the forest came alive specifically around this one; the point to me is that the forest comes alive around every tree and wherever we are not watching. It is also goes to show you how much is going on in the world that is outside human consciousness. It is a good reminder that there is so much more happening beyond our awareness and understanding.
If we have the openness and desire for a connection with Nature, and can stand still, strong, and silent like the tree, we too can become the center and watch as the forest comes alive around us, too.