Nature Perspective Series: Tree
Image from Google
We often view history from a purely human perspective, forgetting that the events that shape our story do not happen in a vacuum. In this series, I explore the often forgotten perspective of nature during major historic events. Here, we get a small glimpse into the quiet, pained view of the spirits of nature in the North American landscape as it witnesses the transition from Indigenous communities, through colonialism, and into present day.
My ancestors have been here for millennia, growing slow and steady alongside the many cycles of life that have come and gone. We do not move, but remain steadfast in our place within the earth, our roots growing ever deeper and intertwined with one another. The tendrils of our roots swell and submerge themselves deep below, dark and quiet, where they meet with others to join in a communion of silent support. Our branches above dance in the wind, murmuring our soft song of quiet observation to the world moving below us. My purpose has always been known, to make my home within the Earth, our life-giving mother, and be the sturdy support to her children. We are the elders of this family, the ones with cracked and wrinkled lines marking our bodies, the ones who have borne witness to the patterns of life and death.
Yet our knowledge and wisdom is being lost. Where we once shared a vast network, an intricately woven blanket of arms interlocked in solidarity, we are now being torn apart and viciously uprooted from each other. Generations of my fellow brothers and sisters have fallen around me, their arms going lifeless as I watch white men slash at their flesh. Fewer and fewer of us remain, the weight made heavier with every loss. Man used to respect us, he used to know we all have our roots within the Earth, but this new version of man sees only himself as the wisdom keeper. He claims a divine right to my brethren, that a God beyond this world gave us to them to carelessly take, when in fact they ignored the sanctity of our being. Man has forgotten that God is not out beyond the clouds in the sky hovering above, but rather is the very Earth itself, it is the life-giving force that created us all. All of Earth’s creatures started with deep roots within the Earth, we are a reminder of that beginning for our roots are still there. Though my arms are now empty and hollow with the memories of my fallen kin, I remain still and quiet, a lone reminder that the history of life is rooted in nature and I patiently wait for the day that man returns to us and that our arms may be made full once again.
Image from Google