A New Friendship

 

As of today, I have new friend in Himachal, exactly at the beginning of district Mandi. Oh, I said that the friend is ‘at’ somewhere. Have you noticed it? Of course, it cannot move because it is a tree! Now do trees move or change their position or location? That question is for you to figure out. But how cool it is! I feel something new within me when I am thinking about the tree at the banks of a beautiful khad in Gunehar. Its branches are thorny and full of young leaves now. It will have beautiful white flowers int the right season. I will make sure to visit and enjoy the blossoming with the tree. There is more to it, I read my story to the tree and it seemed to have listened! I should ask her next time for tips to improve the same. 

I have looked at trees with awe and payed attention to how silent and slow-paced their growth is, during my school days itself. Watching the height changes of coconut trees in front of our home courtyard in Kerala used to calm my anxious mind. But never have I made a friendship with them, only chit-chats so far. My mother speaks to the trees, especially the jackfruit tree at our home. She asks the tree to give fruits at the bottom trunk so that we can pluck it easily. The jackfruit tree actually listens to her! In the next season we enjoyed a ‘fruitful’ summer. So many tree memories!

This week has surprised me with aligning events like these; I could finally hold my dream of having a dense green space at the center of my mind, I was guided by my colleague to listen to the sound of water flow within a tree trunk, and then the events at Gunehar Sound Museum today. Sound is at the center too, in every living experience of ours. How powerful it is to listen to the sounds around and within, to the stories and songs. It is really empowering to feel at ease after a green grounding day. It is as if I lost the way within my mind for the last two days and I was helped to get it right today. I am so thankful to my Himachal days for proving to me again and again that I can really get back my peace at the end of an internal ambush. May be, I shall share about the last time it happened, another time!