This chapter was written with the book Talk to the Trees, but I kept it out of the book because it was so personal and had a different tone than the rest. My own parenting experience has been challenging and so for this channeling, there was a lot of back and forth between myself and the trees. I needed their strength, reassurance, and validation. I’ve had postpartum depression, D-MER, and mom burnout, so I don’t even know if I can be unbiased enough to channel any wisdom about parenting. Enjoy.
Being a tree parent is much easier than being a human parent. Family and children is the area in which we bow to the fact that the elements of this job are much more challenging for you.
Trees can release the seeds, the fruits, the acorns, and at that point there’s very little responsibility as to the tending the offspring.
Meanwhile, you’re at the other end of the energetic spectrum of tending to offspring. There are years you invest in this.
What then can a tree offer to parents or to family that is of worthwhile in the midst of a year-long experience of tending to the growth of children?
Our first relation to this type of experience is the bracing and patience that we trees have to live through the different weather patterns and climatic changes that we experience. One summer there’s a drought, the next summer there’s a heavy period of rain followed by long periods of no rain and in each of these experiences there are phases of time which offer unique strains and many months later it’s a different strain. Some years there’s an influx of insects eating the leaves in the bark, other years there’s a flock of birds that overtakes the branches. One winter there might be an ice storm that causes lots of branches to break.
Throughout each different weather experience, in a way we have no choice but to withstand it, and to weather it, and to come out of it. In this way we’re similar to you and that many of the stages of parenting that are challenging, there is very little to do but withstand it, weather it, and to recognize that one day you will come out of it.
We really want to highlight that one of the greatest things that we admire humans for is your parenting. And especially the parents who nurture and encourage those children to grow to their greatest strengths, to their greatest dreams, to their greatest interests, and inclinations. As mentioned before, not only do we not tend to our offspring long-term, they all have a very strong genetic and physical resemblance to their parents. We are not accustomed to having offspring who are radically different from their parents. However in the human world, you may be encouraged to raise a child who is radically different from how you interact in and experience the world.
We use the word encouraged, because it takes courage to raise a child who is different from you and to not let that experience make either you or them question their own integrity and beauty in the creation of their being.
We really wish to highlight our reverence for you for the courage that you take and the efforts that you make in this aspect of the human experience.
It is well acknowledged in the human experience that parenting is a hard job, many will say it’s the hardest job you ever do, and yet there is still also an undercurrent of devaluing this experience in the way that many of your human structures and circumstances are set up. It would be our wish for you, if we could ever give you encouragement for areas in which humans can improve your circumstances, that as you’re building the new Earth, the structures, and new paradigms that you wish to create, that within this you would establish a firmer foundation and clear acknowledgment of this wonder of the human experience. It is truly remarkable the courage, the stamina, the creativity, and ingenuity that parents enact in raising their children. Likewise, for the children it is also a way of them expressing their creativity, so this interplay of parent-child relations is inevitably a very creative playground of the experimenting and expressing of each human self.
There is something in the human experience, that is the spark of self-expression, that becomes uniquely defined within the family and within the growth of a child. Inevitably, we know of the challenges in the internal dynamics that happen within a home and the raising of children. This is why we have spent the time in this chapter to really focus on acknowledging and admiring your efforts.
The whole symphony of life knows that what you do to get a child from conception to maturity is no small feat. We can’t offer logistical information regarding the practical parenting, however this acknowledgment and our admiring of you and the efforts you’re making is desired to be having an empowering effect on you. You are inherently equipped either within you internally, when you seek your highest wisdom and guidance, or when you connect with other wise beings in your community, to either modify, adapt, or support the parenting challenges that you experience, or to find within you the stamina to endure those circumstances until they come to some type of resolution.
There isn’t enough that we could say that would empower you to the degree that we wish. We literally could repeat this chapter from beginning to end again to have you hear two times in a row, three times in a row, 10 times in a row, the reverence and admiration we have for you for this act.
These words are to show you our appreciation and to remind you that while we cannot take action for you, while we cannot offer practical advice for you, we are standing for you We are standing with you.
All around we are standing with you.
Look outside, there we are standing with you.
Need someone to lean on, lean on us.
We are standing with you.
We are embodying stamina and knowing that you also have some type of stamina.
We will be with you throughout this entire process. If you break internally, emotionally, and in any other way that you can feel broken and defeated, we will still be there admiring you, loving you, embodying the stamina and the resilience with you and for you.
We stand with you and for you through the process of nurturing the next generation. May your heart enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Go here and Get yourself a copy of the book Talk to the Trees here.
