A Tree, A Fire, A Realization…or Two
Being In The World Not Of It
The Momma Tree
More than three decades ago I moved from New York City to Los Angeles. I had actually been in a movie theater on East 86th Street watching the film “10” with Bo Derek. In my head, I heard “It’s time to move to California.” It was a pretty strong voice the kind that is all at once commanding and intuitive as well as loud and clear. The kind of prompt that defies reason but also defies excuses. So within a matter of months, I was in my little 1976 Honda Civic (they were MUCH smaller back then) with my “Keep on Truckin’” floor mats chugging my way up and over the Rockies on my way to LA arriving on Halloween.
Shortly thereafter a friend took me up to the Angeles National Forest above LA and to a camping site called Buckhorn. There alongside a trail was an amazing tree growing diagonally across the top of the road. As we approached it I saw that at its base it was hollowed out; burned as if lightening or something had struck it. Whatever the force, it was enough to hollow out the tree to an extent that I could stand in it- and the tree was still living, still growing. So, of course, I had to go stand in it. The sound was muffled. Inside that shell, I could feel the energy of the tree. It wasn’t just hollowed it was hallowed. It was a safe meditative place. It was a place to be grounded in nature and to center…
