It must have been there for a long long time.
And I might not have noticed it had it not been for the holy man .
To the eyes of the body it looked just like any other tree.
Lazily leaning seawards… it’s leaves gently ruffled by whimsical sea-breezes.
A soft tree shadow shuffles on the uneven sands below it.
And behind it, up above was the sky and patterned clouds.
As beautiful in an everyday beautiful sort of way.
That’s what I saw that evening on the beach.
And I might have passed by it carelessly without even bothering…
But then quiet and suddenly, the holy man was by my side again.
A subtle shift in the sea breezes and I knew that he was there.
Once more there was a tingling expectation of new and wondrous things
that I would be opened to .
“To the eyes of the body, that is just an ordinary tree,” he said.
“I see it that way,” I answered, knowing that something unusual and wonderful was to happen.
It was generally that way with the holy man. He always started off with the ordinary.
Long ago we had walked another beach together and my heart had been refreshed and my spirit had been graced by the enlightenment and learning on that memorable walk.
This time we were on a beach again. And there was this ordinary tree in front of us.
At least it looked quite ordinary to me.
“When they first break through the ground, trees always wish to grow straight upwards,” he said.
“I can imagine that,” I said. “I would want that too if I was a tree. I would want to be straight and tall and majestic…”
He turned his face to look at me. There was some kind of a knowing look in his eyes. I sensed some subtle comparison he was making between the tree there and me… the straight and tall in my intentions, the inclined and leaning in my living.
And yet, inclined though it was, there was something beautiful about that tree.
When they are young and tender the branches have no strong will of their own. One can never foretell the leanings of the tree…..
“The winds often coax young branches to lean in the direction they are blowing towards,” he said. I could understand that, and I nodded knowingly.
But the winds generally blew towards the land masses! So why was the tree leaning towards the sea?
He read my thoughts and gentle was the answer he gave to them.
” Besides the winds, the branches and leaves also yearn for the waters and light”, he said.
“Winds and water and light…. and through constant dialogue and interplay with these, the branches make a direction for themselves.”
There is never any struggle or force in any of this…. just choices made and the branches grow comfortably and strongly.