Connecting With Wisdom- March 11

Do you have a special place in nature where you go to feel connected to the wisdom and spirit of those who have passed? In today’s ''5 Minutes in Nature', Liz takes you on a walk to a hawthorn tree on Dartmoor—a place where she remembers a dear old friend. There, she asks the tree a question, seeking a moment of connection with her friend’s wisdom.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott and today and over the next three days I want to take you out on a walk with me to visit three spots on Dartmoor that are particularly special to me and the first day as we are here in March listening to nature's wisdom I'm standing beneath blue skies really gusty cool wind and I know from just being in the house today and watching the showers speed through is that I'm very likely to get hammered by a rain shower for probably about five minutes and then it'll be gone it's it's like a hit-and-run rain shower it just comes the skies open and then it's gone and then it's blue skies again this is a very typical early spring day where I live on the edge of Dartmoor and I want to take you today to reflect on wisdom actually the wisdom of those that have gone before and I'm going to take you to a really special place because for me it feels important to have a special place and a place where I can remember people who have passed who have died and whose wisdom I really valued in life and I feel I can connect with their wisdom again here in nature so that's where I'm going to take you to today it's like I say it's bright sunshine at the moment I'm going to walk through the gate in a that will take me up onto the moorland and then you can join me again when I get to this special place where we can reflect together on the wisdom of those that have passed well here I am I've come up to the Hawthorne tree it's a tree that stands quite solitary in the landscape here and it looks really old it's got a twisted trunk and its branches are really knobbled and bent it has to withstand the wind that blows here across Dartmoor and it's just beautiful it's a place I come when I want to connect with the wisdom of a dear friend let me tell you the story because this dear friend it was a friend of myself and my husband he was called Jim and during Covid Jim took his own life it was unexpected and it was absolutely shocking and during the time we were right at the beginning of restrictions and lockdowns it was the early days of Covid and we weren't able to go to the funeral we weren't able to speak to the family we weren't able to meet with friends and to process the grief that we felt at the passing of Jim and so our husband and I as we walked on the moors every day we'd walk past this tree and we both realized that this was Jim's tree that's what we call it we call it Jim's tree and as I am here now in this cold northwesterly wind with the sunshine and the warmth of March also contrasting with that wind I'm standing beside Jim's tree and let me just put my hand on the trunk there we go and I can just feel the softness of the moss and the lichen that's on the the trunk of this tree and this is where I come when I want to ask Jim a question or when I want to ask a question Jim had lots of ideas he was so affirming of people he was brilliant at coming up with different kinds of ideas to tackle problems he was someone who would think outside of the box and he was very encouraging and supportive of people along the way so this is where I come when I feel I need some inspiration I need some wisdom I come I put my fingers and hand on the trunk of the tree and I ask Jim for some support I wonder if you've got somewhere like this somewhere where you can go in nature and be present to someone who's passed and connect with their wisdom so this is Jim's tree and it feels very special to be sharing this with you today