Following is a reprint of a piece on the Burmis Tree that I created in 2004 for Artists for Peace.
Lessons of the Burmis Tree
- Peace comes with the patience to see the beautiful. © 2004
- Peace comes with the patience to see and to be the beautiful. © 2012
- Peace comes with the patience to see, to be, and to create the beautiful. © 2019
The Burmis Tree is the most photographed tree in the world. It was sentenced to perch on a ridge along Highway 3, in Southern Alberta, Canada, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, for over 740 years. Its needles were lost in 1978; Chinook winds toppled it in 1998; it was vandalized in 2004. It suffers by living, by acts of love, and by acts of violence. It symbolizes all variations of struggle: right and wrong, life and death, love and hate, safety and danger, peace and violence. At one angle it is lovely, at another grotesque; it has moments of vulnerability and moments of strength; it has stages of dying and stages of immortality. Judgment is a matter of perception. Combine the right light and just the right perspective with an exercise of patience, it is possible to capture an essence. This is a process that creates a magical healing, medicinal joy arising from the sense of peace and calm experienced. Whenever I notice and respect the world around me and whenever I use patience as a tool, I find the light that erases the dark shadows cast by prejudgments. Peace travels the path lit with the beauty of all things.
Lessons of the Tree
#1
When angered, frustrated,
and unable to find my way,
I will simply take a deep breath,
open my mind and wait
for the light to show
me the beauty.
I’m there when I can breathe easily.
Choosing to perceive beauty
in all things,
including myself,
is an exercise of will,
determination, and above all, patience.
#2
My family calls it my tree; it is my soul.
It is okay to let me be.
I will always be here—
not always in a recognizable form
that needs wiring or rewiring.
You need not fix a sigh of relief.
The self is nothing of matter;
it is hard to realize “nothing” matters.
The light of understanding is everywhere.
This is the lesson
of the Burmis Tree.
Last Hurrah
Burmis Tree Photograph
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