Be Befriended, Tree Edition

Hello Reader

As we head towards a long weekend, here in the U.S., this week's Ground Notes offers some reflection on nature companions, and a new mini-practice to try out.

Plus: If you could check out my new video, and give it a viewing nudge, that would be great. Even if YouTube isn't your thing, I'm trying to develop introductions to nature exploration that I can share with partner organizations. It's an easy way to support my work, and, nature opportunities for more people here in eastern Washington!

Cheers,

Jennifer

​Ordinary Nature​

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Weekly Reflection 🌱
• Weekly Practice ✨
• Little Tender Things 🪲💚
• ​New Video! 🎥 ✨

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WEEKLY REFLECTION

New Friends: Trees As Companions

Jennifer Ruth Keller

The buzz and hum of spring keeps peaking here in eastern Washington. I find myself reeling at the rapid onset of summer, and the fade of winter and spring I never seemed to have quite processed. They simply rolled in, and out. And now here we are.

Yesterday I remembered to try out some of my own best advice, and while at the park for my daughter's group tennis lesson I didn't try to squeeze in five things to do. I didn't rush through a list of what I call "phone errands"--those mundane logistics we conduct via devices, the relentless registration and password-protected tasks of the digital age.

Instead I let myself stroll. No scooter this time! No aims for quickness or distance. I actually let a kind of inner deflation take hold, and expand within my body.

Drawn to a shaded grove where poppies and irises were also beginning to droop, their wave in the bloom season eclipsed this week by roses and peonies, I sat on a small concrete bench I may know too well.

As I sat, deflation-rich, I saw a tree I've likely seen hundreds of times, yet hadn't yet known. Its shedding bark caught the late afternoon sun, basking like a reptile on a rock. The lush, one-by-one needles paired with the bark, each suggesting delicacy, or tender vulnerability to loss, to the brasher elements of the world.

In strips, the bark sheds. In a tiny float to the ground, a needle passes. Loss, passing, fading, and slow deflation mark the lives of other nature beings too. I look with the cypress, and, with me on the bench, a few feet away, it stands with me.

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WEEKLY PRACTICE INVITATION

The what: What Nature Companion Befriends You?

The how: During the long weekend, set aside about 30 minut

es (or more!) that lets you wander in a park, or garden, or yard, without having to be too time-aware.

Give yourself a few minutes to slow into your movement.

Pause. In a simple way, experience each of your senses, and arrive where you are.

Notice whatever arises in your body, or maybe your mind, or your heart sense. Hold it with a light awareness, like a leaf in your palm.

Stroll. Play with being open to who might draw you towards them -- a tree, plant, maybe a flower, or dirt mound, rock, or creature. YKWYK (for those new to typing shorthand: "You know when you know.")

How might they be trying to befriend you? Notice with curiosity, and open playfulness.

Stay awhile with them. Offer to them whatever form or style or amount of befriending feels right for you.

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LITTLE TENDER THINGS

Dragonfly, we see you,

lapsed, on gritty sidewalk

too soon to enjoy summer,

your flight escapades

cut short, not sweet

this season.

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​New Video! 🎥✨

Every view (and sharing a video, or this newsletter) contributes to my effort to offer free resources and events because that's one way I develop partnerships and collaborations with regional organizations. Thank you!

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