Elf Leaf is nestled into the woods. The pioneers that settled this land at the turn of the century cleared the land so the most beautiful phenomenon happens when a storm begins it's chaotic energies. We have woods all around our house with a large open clearing. The west hill is covered with large old oaks and young birch and maples. The driveway is lined with elms that sprawl in long thick boughs that have grown from their base. The east woods is filled with birch and poplar. There are few pine trees that reside on the east knoll and north of our house.
This gives us the most amazing glimpses into the working of the trees when a storm begins. One day last week we were waiting for a storm to begin with all the orchestrated crashes of thunder and lightning to be watched from within our clearing. I was tempted to walk up the west hill to sit and watch the trees but our clearing provided enough of a show.
The phenomena is what the wind does to the trees. In our little clearing we can watch as the wind blows it's path around the clearing. As the wind blows in from the north we see the pines lean left then right as they stand firm in their trunks. The wind swirls through the east woods as the birch and poplar sway like women bending and bowing from the tips of their outstretched arms to the tips of their toes. Down and up the driveway stirring the elms. Their dance is the chaotic sway of crowded dance floor, this bough leaning and swaying to the east, that one swaying to the north while the next dips to the west as the wind blows up the west hill. It's power forces the oaks to dance in a man dance where their hips and legs are stiff with immobility but their arms swaying around in a tight circle, trying to free themselves to the music of the wind yet stiff in their responses. While the birch ladies sway and bend in time with the oak men.
I found myself rotating in a circle to take in all of the show in the trees. The fear of the snap as one may break from the strength of the wind but also awed by the different dances the trees lead in their own unique characteristics. I was drawn to the beauty of standing tall for many years in the same place and flowing with this wind storm dance. Each storm that I watch this phenomena brings more understanding to these trees that have been here for a century or just a decade.
May you flow with the wind in your trees and dance your own spirit dance.....
walk in peace,
crone
