Rooted in the land

With the approach of the Spring Equinox there is just the very first sign of greening on some trees. The beginnings of a surge of new growth and renewal in response to the brightening light. Trees are special, they have a very deep presence which is impossible to ignore. We are drawn to them, we have our deepest thoughts beneath their boughs. Though very different we have much in common. Trees are deep rooted in the land. Their connection with the land is firm and fixed. In a real sense they and the land are one. As free roaming creatures women and men do not appear at first to be deeply rooted in the land. At best they are fee to roam freely across the face of the earth. Yet this is to belie a deep truth. Women and men are just as deep rooted in the land as trees.

We all know where home is. After many years or even generations that may not truly be where we live. Wherever there is a diaspora there is a longing for home, a need to visit, to connect, to know. A longing to learn the language and customs of our forebears.

To dispossess someone of the land is one of the greatest crimes that can be committed. To dispossess someone of their land requires terrible force. It is like uprooting an ancient tree that has clung to the land for generations. There is always death, burning, torture and the rape of countless women, the deaths of many children. And then there is the cultural annihilation. The attack on culture and language. The ridiculing of the Goddesses. The forced worship of one all-powerful god or warrior leader. The pain of exile. The cry of the refugee. The tragedy of homelessness. The utter sense of loss.

This month has seen reports of the continuing agony of Darfur, the five year destruction of Iraq and the pain of the Tibetan people. It has seen the un-satiable greed of a few threaten the homes of many. In many ways a typical month in a world of patriarchy in which weak, unthinking men, always fail to learn the lessons of history. A world in which weak men who avoid at all cost war for themselves and their families, send the daughters and sons of others to kill, maim and die on the sole justification of fabrication, lies and Orwellian use of language. They are men guilty of enormous crimes against peoples and their land. They are men in whom we can put no trust.

The Spring Equinox is a brief time of poise and balance when the whole world is equally bathed in life-giving light. Trees achieve their own poise, balance and presence in response to the nurture of their native earth and the call of the light. From them we have much to learn.