SINGING SILENCE

Koosah Falls on the McKenzie River about forty five minutes from Springfield, Oregon.
I didn't grow up in the shadows of oaks,maples, or beeches. Outside of a few trees in the yards 
around Oakridge, and the two dwarf apple trees in our yard I grew up surrounded by evergreens.

And a single evergreen just won't do as an image for a world tree.

Is there such a thing as a world forest? There used to be a belt of evergreens that stretched

across Europe, Asia and into North America. In Siberia they call it the Taiga and say that

only the birds know where the Taiga ends. A world forest? Perhaps.Once upon a time. 

But a single evergreen simply won't survive by itself. Where an oak or maple has a low

lying single trunk that branches and branches and branches an evergreen spikes straight up.

I've seen a few cedars with a double trunk, maybe a triple but that's it. The branches tend
to slope downwards to survive heavy snowfalls and the root system is usually
shallower. Apparently only in the Pacific belt that runs through Oregon, Washington 

and British Columbia do you find the great trees that took multiple trucks to bring one

tree out. In most other places the trunks are thinner The trees shorter. This makes 

evergreens vulnerable in ice storms or severe windstorms. The best defense?

Grow in huge groves so that each tree is protected by the others. So a world forest 

as a symbol of the world we would love to see isn't too far off. Each tree protects

the others and any damage to one tree threatens the rest. So instead of one great 

tree, I find myself picturing a world with a great forest in every part of the globe with 

the roots reaching for the center.

So, where did this come from? As I read a guided imagery exercise my
little avatar didn't go looking for an oak or a maple. It made tracks for
the tall timber. Some place with tall trees, ferns, deep moss, some deadfall
for the mushrooms and lichens to grow on, and some berry bushes. If a
waterfall makes an appearance that is a definite bonus

If I can't have a waterfall then a drippy, misty, coastal forest will do very nicely.

So if my little spirit self doesn't head for the Cascades it heads for the coast.

Not to the beach, to the great basalt headlands graced with low-lying evergreens shaped
by the winds. To that Pacific Ocean that William Clark called the Great
Western Ocean. When he made the entry he said he wasn't about to call it the
Pacific. He hadn't had one pacific (peaceful) day since he laid eyes on it.

And silence. Not the scary, wake up in the middle of the night, where is
everybody silence. But the root deep silence of the world before the first
word was spoken. A silence that hums just below what you can hear. Bird song, wind song
and water song are part of that silence. A silence with a background hum. A
silence that begins to sing. To speak.