Begin by settling in to whatever position you've chosen.
Maybe you're sitting down on the floor with your spine straight,
Or maybe you're lying down or curled up,
All cozy.
Wherever you are,
Just arrive.
Notice the breath move in your body.
Notice the lightness of it,
The gentle currents.
There's no need to change the breath.
Just notice how it is right now.
And you may find that this attention changes it anyway,
And that's fine.
And feel the breath coming in through your nostrils.
Feel it passing through your sinuses.
Feel it fill your lungs.
And feel the whole body breathing around the breath,
Soft,
Flexible,
Just a gentle flow of movement.
And now feel the weight of you,
All the weight of you just resting on the earth,
Like the earth hugging you to her with this force of gravity.
Feel how good it feels to just rest in the embrace of gravity.
Invite into your mind the image of a tree,
A nice big,
Strong one.
Perhaps you feel yourself sitting at the roots of the tree,
Your back against the bark of the tree.
Perhaps you feel the bark with your hands.
Look at its color,
Marvel at its texture.
Perhaps there is life living on the skin of this tree,
Moss,
Tiny insects,
And lichen.
And just rest right into the tree.
Feel the solidity of the trunk,
The strength of it.
Feel the life in this tree.
And rest your trunk on that trunk until you almost merge with the tree.
Now feel the tree and yourself growing roots down into the earth,
Down,
Down,
Down.
Feel the quiet,
Feel the heaviness and the solidity,
Feel the strength of the earth beneath you.
And just reach into it until you and the tree are completely grounded in the earth.
Now,
Just like the tree,
You can draw from the earth.
You can draw nourishment.
You can draw support.
You can cling to the earth for stability,
For something solid to hold onto.
You can drink of the deep,
Clear water that falls and drifts into the earth and percolates down.
You can reach deep into the quiet,
Dark places when you need a rest.
So draw some nourishment up,
Up from your roots,
Into your body.
And from that,
Grow your branches high,
Up,
Up,
Up.
Unfurl your leaves with the tree and feel the cool night air.
Hear the wind and the branches sway or wrestle in the moonlight.
Just feel the expansiveness of this stretch.
Feel the magic of the energy of the movement,
The wind with all its eddies and currents.
Wonder at the magic of it,
The spontaneity,
The unpredictability.
Notice the life in the treetop,
An owl looking for prey,
Bats flitting in and out.
Feel your breath move your body as the wind moves the branches of the tree.
Dynamic,
Supple,
Flexible.
Draw all of that beautiful energy down from the very top,
All of the movement,
All of the flexibility,
All of the suppleness,
Any whooshing or creaking or noise,
Groaning.
You can give a big sigh with your body if you want to.
Draw that energy down,
The magic of the wind and the moonlight,
And draw up from your roots at the same time,
The earthy stability,
The wet and the dark,
Quiet life beneath the soil.
And mix the power of heaven with the power of earth right in the heart of you.
Let these such different qualities mingle right in your very center.
Feel them mix and churn.
Feel them dance and embrace.
The movement of the branches is always here for you.
The solidity of the earth and the roots is always here for you.
You can release yourself from the form of the tree until you are just another animal.
You might climb the tree and rest in its branches,
Or you might curl yourself right at the root and rest on the earth.
Wherever you are,
The tree has you,
And you have the tree.
