And then the Storm Comes
Grandmother Willow before the Storms
Working and Grieving with Grandmother Willow
I love this tree, so I have been grieving her - while avoiding talking about the February storm damage she has suffered.
Here she sits at the epicentre of the croft - the Heart.
I have been dreaming with her for 15 years.
She told me last midsummer that she wasn’t going to be here for ever, though I didn’t expect it to happen quite so soon. She’d given me a new name for the land and we talked about the shift from embracing feminine open-heartenedness into more of a unity consciousness - a coherent duality. These are stories already told and yet to be told …
A few days ago she asked me to do the required tree work, rather than to ask someone else. A way of honouring our relationship. I trust her to guide me. For the past few years I’ve sat with her sharing my plans with her and the land. They listen and then tell me what to do …
Today, Good Friday of the Christian Easter Festival, she calls and asks me to start.
What a day to choose !
We’ve frequently talked about creating a circle behind her, West. It was always going to be a living willow structure, I never expected her to give so much of herself to this. And so this work starts in tandem with her dismantling. I have brought her back to trigger point today - and am too tired to work on this safely now. I have at least three options for the next stages - and she will decide. First though I will be clearing her branches and starting the circle … not what I planned to be doing over Easter weekend. Such are these times.
She left a few messages in her branches …
And on the way home I saw a white calf !
In celebration of trees and the consciousness of all beings.
Day 2
So this is as far as we’re going, while she’s in leaf. We’ll let the autumn winds decide the rest later.
I broke all my own rules for her - the first time I have ever worked a chainsaw off the ground …
And now we have a potential new seat, that might spring to life yet !
The tadpoles need to be rehomed before I can start on the living willow circle.
And I’ve included the photo’s of the 2 firewood/mash piles, living branch pile and woman and dog pile for perspective.
It’s a beautiful day!
with much Love
from my Heart to yours
Tania Aurora White Crow