The Leaves of God's Trees

God said:

You have heard of the lilies of the field, and how I tend to them. You are My lilies, beloveds.

I tend to every tree and their leaves. You are My trees, and you are the leaves of My trees.

To you, I am devoted.

You may say that lilies pass their prime. You may say that trees are chopped down. You may say there is plenty of hurting in the world, and that you have not been spared.

Perhaps if a leaf thought as you, it would object to its falling in autumn. The leaf does not question, for although the rain beats down on it, the leaf knows that the rain that falls nourishes it. The leaf does not know words. The leaf does not think. Instead, it drinks the water that it receives and lets the rest roll off.

Nor does the leaf consider that when it doesn't rain, and it is very thirsty, that it has been forgotten. It does not feel sorry for himself by the fact that the soil it is embedded in is dry. The leaf trusts that it is taken care of, and that rain will fall. A leaf does not grow bitter. Whatever is, a leaf knows it exists on God's Earth.

A leaf does not look at either rain or drought as fatal. A leaf accepts what comes.

You might say that if you were like a leaf, then you would be passive. Certainly, you are not meant to be passive. You have legs to move you. You have the advantage of being able to get out of the rain. When it's dry, you have the advantage of going to a stream where there is water to drink. Unlike a leaf, you do not have to stay where you are. And you, like a leaf, do not have to argue. A leaf does not feel sorry for itself. Unlike you, it doesn't take rain or drought as personal to him. A leaf understands that it is part of the panorama.

Do not mix up equanimity with passivity.

You too do not need to get distraught by whatever befalls or does not befall.

You have choices that the leaf does not have. You can get frantic if you want. You can run around in circles. You can shake your fist. Yet how much wiser is the leaf than you. If you were a leaf, you might have shriveled up on the tree by now. You might have bemoaned your lot.

But you are not a leaf. You are a Human Being. In one sense, you have been blessed more than the beautiful leaf that stays on its branch and then, at a given time, falls lightly to the ground, to dry out and to be raked up or left to renew the soil. The leaf does not make a big thing of its circumstances or changes in its appearances.

Yes, there is much for you to learn from the lilies of the field and the leaves on trees, and from the trees who stand tall and the trees that bend. You can learn much from everything. You do learn a great deal, and yet, not always do you learn that which is to your benefit.

But never mind all this about learning or not learning. The true lesson from nature is just to be. Shed some of the clothing you have put on, the discernments, the rules and regulations, the shoulds and the won'ts, the can'ts and the musts, and the how it's supposed to be's. In other words, let go of much of your accumulated thinking. Oh, if you would let go of past thoughts and find some new ones, or find none at all! Oh, if only you would let go and start anew, and, like the leaf, let every day be what it is, and therefore new and newly welcomed.

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If I were a leaf...

If I were a leaf, I would give a flutter-wave to my neighbors and kiss the air with my pores! I would not bemoan being attached in one place...for when the wind comes, I will surf through the sky on my tender perch. And such a vantage point for seeing and loving everyone and thing...near and far. And...I see you now...beneath me...I see you and love you oh so much! You and I appear so different...and yet we are happy, free children of God...free to sway and free to play and free to bless and free to Love. Swaying with you today and Loving you so much! Jim.

"If I were a leaf"

Precious Jim:

This kind of beautiful poetry hardly touches that vast scope of what you are telling us.
What you say so lucidly makes us long to be a leaf next to you, fluttering in the lofty winds of God.
To commend you is utterly foolish, your own words do it so much better than mine could ever do.

George learning to flutter

"Consider the Lilies HOW they grow..."

This darling writer reminds all of us: "The true lesson from nature is just to be:"

This sounds so right, so easy, so important to know, to understand but when it come down to learning to unpack our psychological suitcase and let go of our dreamy body we find that we have an addiction to human nature and that to become a dream walker, ONE who has learned to walk between the worlds in the light of forever, is just beyond our reach, or so it seems.

This is why we have to consider the HOW of leafs blowing in the wind, or "lilies growing in the field; they neither toil nor spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as beautiful as one of these." This is just to remind us of the cosmic secret: "Be still and Know that I Am is God."

"But never mind all this about learning or not learning." Is the way this precious writer describes our part in this celestial drama. Of course it helps to pat attention during rehearsal and to know the Author of the Script helps, but we must let go of doing our things and pay attention to what the Source is telling us in our inner dialogue. Love

George pretending to be a dandelion

Although it's not difficult

Although it's not difficult to see what is admirable in an animal or a plant, I have always found it rather unfair to compare the human consciousness with the wisdom of cats and dogs and leaves and, for that matter, nail clippings. The leaf does not know words. The leaf does not think. Obviously it's easier to be wise, spontaneous etc without the ability to speak and to think. But thinking and speaking are there and so must be good for something. If we were meant to simply do away with them, mass lobotomy would be the answer. What, then, is the proper use of words and thoughts? In which sense am I blessed more than a leaf? What is so desirable about first becoming a worry wart through speaking and thinking and then trying to learn The true lesson from nature which is just to be? Why not stay leaf in the first place? Why not stay a humble pile of cells and never depart from that? Is "simply being" something more or higher when it is regained after apparently getting lost through words and thoughts? Simply being in spite of words and thoughts -- is that what we are meant to accomplish? Why? What is the use of that? Is not a leaf love? Goodness, there is something I want to ask, but I don't even know what it is.

Jochen's wonderful comment

Precious Jochen:

I knew it, I knew it, you have forgotten when you were the energy in a leaf.
You don't remember when you were pure intelligence, per chance in a squirrel or lady-bug.

Sure, now you have what you call words and the so called power to think which raise in you some questions.
The questions are fair, beautiful, drawing questions but they are but the building blocks of concepts.

Concepts seem to be the bulldozer pushing down great buildings of men's thoughts.

Dearest Jochen life isn't that sort of thing and your questions make the off stage chorus laugh with glee.

They cry, "He thinks it's all real, not ideas, he thinks he's real and not the dream that some great ONE dreaming."

With one accord they cry: "JUST TO BE is what to see, only that and little more."

Take off that flesh suit with its temporary meaning and you return to what we all have been in the land of Oz. It's really not so bad to remove the garland of skin and bones. They make good fertilizer in the end of temporal things.

You gave away the whole essay with one short statement: "Why? What is the use of that? Is not a leaf love? Goodness, there is something I want to ask, but I don't even know what it is." You asked it, know it, and have become it and we envy you.

George a leaf changing color as it gets ready to fall

Yes, quite, George.

Yes, quite, George. Forgotten and not yet remembered. But hey, making someone laugh is not the worst thing, is it?

Okay, joining in is better. I may need those twenty-two years of nonexistent time for that, taking in as much autumn sun as I can to make for fine wine, perhaps even realizing the pointlessness of trying to tell dream from reality.

Jochen, raking

Jochens Voice

Jochen dear:

You make us laugh, think, dream, wonder, play in the sandbox of growing up into who we are. you're wonderful!

George turning back to energy slowly

3 Heavenletter Haikus for

3 Heavenletter Haikus for you

Hello Friends,

God said Beloveds
To you I am devoted
There is much for you

God said just to be
Is the lesson from nature
Let every day be

God said where you are
Whatever is on God's Earth
You have your choices

Love, Light and Aloha!

like the leaf

But never mind all this about learning or not learning. The true lesson from nature is just to be. Shed some of the clothing you have put on, the discernments, the rules and regulations, the shoulds and the won'ts, the can'ts and the musts, and the how it's supposed to be's. In other words, let go of much of your accumulated thinking. Oh, if you would let go of past thoughts and find some new ones, or find none at all! Oh, if only you would let go and start anew, and, like the leaf, let every day be what it is, and therefore new and newly welcomed.