“Every tree and plant in the meadow seemed to be dancing, those which average eyes would see as fixed and still.” 
~ Rumi

One of the great gifts of travel is that you not only see things that are not on your usual daily menu but that you also have the opportunity to open your mind’s eye to new ways of seeing the world and all that inhabit it. I was privileged this past week to take a little break from the snow, white landscapes of my ordinary days and walk greener, more colorful paths in Florida. The ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ of colorful blooming flowers and birds whose flight patterns are unfamiliar to me were joined by two encounters with the banyan tree…something certainly not seen on my daily walks in Minnesota. And what a tree it is! There is a sense of dripping bark as the limbs and trunks melt into one another forming shapes that are both artistic and prehistoric.

It is under the banyan tree that the Buddha is said to have achieved enlightenment. And, really, who wouldn’t be transported to some higher plane sitting at the base of such a magnificent work of Creation. Words that are often attributed to Mother Teresa but which were probably spoken by one of her workers of the Sisters of Mercy say: “In the East,
especially in India, I find that people are more content to just be, to just sit around under a banyan treefor half a day chatting to each other. We Westerners would probably call that wasting time. But there is value to it. Being with someone, listening without a clock and without anticipation of results, teaches us about love. The success of love is in the loving
it is not in the result of loving.” 

We don’t often think of trees teaching about love or if we do we might be reluctant to say it aloud. But, in looking at this amazing work of nature there is so much to notice. The connections are so clear, how one limb leans into another, relying on its neighbors for support and strength. The trunks appear to be mirroring the roots I imagine are below the ground giving it the nourishment it needs for growing and flourishing toward the sky. The recognition of the importance of intertwining, that no one limb could stand alone. And then there is the beauty…the sheer beauty…of being held together in bark and wood and vulnerability and majesty. Isn’t this what we hope love is? Support. Strength. Deep roots. Heavenly reaching. Vulnerability. Nourishment. Growth. Connection, blessed connection. Beauty, even, perhaps, a little majesty.

I feel blessed to have come into the presence of these banyan teachers and pray that their wisdom has seeped into my own limbs, my own trunk. And I also pray that I can see the lessons the trees I see in my own backyard have to teach with new eyes and how they might propel me toward great loving.