lessons from a tree

short and sweet musing on how we navigate change

Dear friends,

I hope that this letter finds you well. It’s a bright sunny Autumnal week in Oxford. The evening light is amber and the trees leaves are beginning to droop a bit. There’s a chill in the air and I’m pulling out my big woolly jumpers and joggers. As we go through this seasonal transition I’ve been thinking about change, how to navigate it and (attempt to) stay steady in it.

Over the last few years I have focused a lot on ‘core strength’, a broad term yes, but for me it is about finding steadiness and centred-ness no matter what happens around me. Like finding a tree trunk and roots which stay strong as the winds pick up and leaves fall off.

"Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, while we were underneath it?" "Supposing it didn't," said Pooh.

After careful thought, Piglet was comforted by this.

- A. A. Milne

As my son turned five I’ve been navigating a shift in my mothering journey. It’s hard to describe the combination of relief to have more of ‘my space back’ and also the empty ache in my heart as he becomes more independent. I’m longing to avoid and run away from these feelings but I’m attempting to sit with them, to meditate and acknowledge and allow me to process the letting go that needs to take place.

And it got me thinking how nature echoes the mother’s journey. And the arc of all creativity. We are constantly in flux, constantly asked to let go of our attachments and to trust the cycles of life.

Autumn is a time of letting go, of change and transition. Shedding what no longer is needed, giving space for quiet growth.

As we step through this time of change I’ve been literally sitting next to tree-trunks, letting myself lean back into the trunk and feel what it is to be held by them. Yes I probably do look like a bit of a mad hippy to the people walking their dogs but it feels deeply reassuring. The trees tell me to trust life. And to trust myself and my strength more.

“The trees soon revealed startling secrets. I discovered that they are in a web of interdependence, linked by a system of underground channels, where they perceive and connect and relate with an ancient intricacy and wisdom that can no longer be denied.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

Trees teach us how to stay steady as the seasons shift, to shed and grow, to be their own and also be with others. They are both interconnected and independent. As I’d love to be. I sit under them, lie under them and occasionally even climb them.

Do you have a favourite tree? One that you love or tend to visit (or visits you)? I love hearing about people’s trees. A friend told me the other day that she still dreams about the tree she used to climb as a girl! I still remember an oak tree that we’d walk to and picnic under on Table Mountain. I’d think about it before going to sleep at night, with it’s great canopy, picnic log and magnificent view.

Sending love,

Bridget x

p.s. there are lots of beautiful writers and writings here on Substack but just wanted to give a shout out for lovely Lyndsay Kaldor and her reflections on seasonal living in our home, which has inspired me in my thinking about how we respond to seasons shifts in our bodies too.