(Note: This is a time of year is quite special to many for a variety of reasons. This small offering is my way to wish all you good BooPeople ample amounts of peace and contentment however you may be celebrating, and even if you don’t celebrate it at all 🙂  
Old Branch

“Ah, finally, some snow to cover me!” sighed Old Branch, laying at chilly final rest in the tangled in winter bushes beside the curved driveway.

It had not been easy to let go of Beloved Mother Tree, even knowing the rightness of retuning to the earth. Old branches become used to restful winters that always bring new spriing bloom, yet the time for the larger cycle had come.  

Old Branch pulled the snow closer, snuggled closer to the earth, feeling it’s warmth and welcome. The known world began to fade, even as it’s cells loosened, beginning the long letting go of this existance.

Voices came closer, along with rustling rolling sounds, and the words, “That one! Get that one!” , broke the snowy silence.  Suddenly, a warm hand pulled hard on Old Branch, yanking her from her slumber, scratchng and scraping her against icy pavement..away, away..from peaceful resting place.

It was a very difficult, frightening journey for Old Branch, whose width and breadth was far too grand to fit the small openings in the tall building. But the warm hands would not let go, yanking and pulling and twisting and tweaking in every known direction until at last, the horror came to an end, and OId Branch found herself in a small warm place with no earth beneath her, and no sky above her.  The small furry four leggeds who came to sniff  reassured her that she was safe here, yet she was still sore afraid. This was not a part of any known Tree Wisdom she had been taught.  

For many light times and dark times, she rested there, against a wall in the small warm place. It was full of the soft voices of the two leggeds with warm hands and the clinking of cups and dishes.  Old Branch wondering how she would manage to return to the earth from this place, that appeared to be very far up over the ground.  There was anticipation in the air, but for what, she could not imagine, in her fearful state.

Then came the night she was tenderly carried and held a long time in warm hands, while other warm hands delicately wound strands of white lights over each of her beautifully arched limbs. There was much laughter and love in the air, enough so she didn’t even feel it when one small branch snapped and drooped, because even that small piece of her was carefully held and mended. Old Branch marveled at the loving, tender touch of these four warm hands, feeling very, very safe and loved, even if still very, very confused.  

Then she felt herself being carefully lifted whole to an elevated place where she was allowed to arrange herself in comfort, with room for all her light-bedecked arms to stretch out, gloriously free.  

Suddenly came a hush all around, until…(oh most glorious honor of all!), in a flash, all the stars from the night sky appeared on every inch of her, illuminating all of her wonder..a  briliant tribute to her naked beauty, and to her lifetime of blooming.

Old Branch wept in joy and reverence, understanding at last, her role, for it was the same as that of the warm handed old ones.  To simply pause, deeply and long, in the wonder of natures natural cycles, to honor fully, each life for all it’s blooming.  To stand quietly, in full shine, adding ones own light an often shadowy world. To revel in birthings granted, growth attained, new cycles ahead, and to the bare and sacred shape of each life’s soul.

c 2005 gm