The Company of Trees

She felt troubled and restless, for her soul was yearning for the solace of belonging to Mother Earth and all her creatures. She knows she will find a place there, within the company of trees. Within that Green Church, she has heard the voice of the Great Mother Witch, who told her she was as blessed and beautiful as the forest. Within the arms of the trees, she felt unique, beloved, and a deep, unshakeable belonging.

She chose to watch the full moon rise one night, quietly, in contemplation and exultation. She chose to feel into the pines and to simply observe. She did not think or even consider or was conscious but was living within sensation, bathed in a light that had known other worlds, blessed to be alive. Her every cell sang with the gratitude that is its own kind of ecstasy. She felt the bliss of being in quiet companionship with the familiar who understands, who knows what she feels and why before she does herself, their pact a comfort and the silence a friend. There is naught, but the breathing in and out of the familiar, and the trees, and the breathing in and out of every living thing, and the planet herself. And she begins to breathe and slow with them in unison.

In a world that others would describe as fearful or lonely, she has found the wild peace of the solitary witch. Pines cleanse, and she feels like everything foolish and wilfully fretful and vexatious is far, far away from her. She is untouchable in her peace. She is home, and her whole world is freedom.

A time of tranquillity and oneness. Deep and true peace from a sense of belonging to the world, being loved by the world. Feeling at home within the world and within the self. Being understood by those around you, even if they are unlike you.

A sense of being separate from those around you and the natural world. Not flowing in unison with all that is. Restless, unsure, unsettled.