Heart Tree

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

Bella felt the mental caress before she even saw her heart tree. It always knew when she needed one. Today the burdens of her new life as shaman of her people weighed heavy on her heart. Today, after the requisite six months of mourning, she had laid her predecessor, her mother, to rest.

She hadn’t been ready to take on work, expecting her mother to live for years yet. But life—and death—cared not for the expectations and desires of mortals. The wheel turned and the lives of mortals flowed with the waters it churned.

As Bella approached her tree, she sent a silent prayer to the maker to hold her mother fast until her time to be reborn. Perhaps Bella would be lucky. Perhaps the child she carried would be a girl. Perhaps her mother would return to her, though Bella would never know for sure.

She sat at the base of the tree, leaning her back against its smooth wood. A warmth suffused her back, beating with the rhythm of their shared heartbeat.

“I’ve brought a special seed today,” she said out loud, though the tree knew her very heart, her very thought. “It’s a wish, not an intention this time.”

Bella reached her hand toward the ground and a small hole opened up to receive the seed, closing immediately over it as ground water welled up to moisten the soil around it. A tiny sprout poked through, quickly growing into a tall seedling.

“Thank you,” Bella whispered, as the call of the physical world drew her back to her life and her duties.

Tomorrow, when she returned, she knew her seed would have moved to a different part of the forest, a fully grown tree, and she would provide a new seed, this one an intention for her people.

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As I browsed images, I came across this beautiful tree. It immediately inspired this story. My friend Connie, who is a paid subscriber, might recognize the roots (pun intended) of this story as coming from my heart garden.

Connie and I both belong to a gratitude group in which we post our gratitudes. Within my mindfulness and gratitude practice, I also set intentions. I created a visualization of a heart garden, the center of which is a tree to which I give an intention seed daily. My garden has grown into a forest which never fails to ease my spirit, no matter how troubled.