This past weekend I went down to Suffolk and spent time in the ancient oak woodlands they have down there. In a group of twelve people we spent time together talking and exploring our dreams (the ones you have at night!) We walked miles and miles in silence, through beautiful landscapes, opening up to different aspects of ourselves and what they had to tell us.
The weekend was led by Rob and Andy from Ecotherapy East, and was an opportunity for deep introspection and at the heart of it, an invitation to grow our self compassion with the support of the other beings around us (both human and non-human!)
It was a transformative experience, I won't go in to too much detail here but just to say it strengthened my faith in the power of relationship to help heal. Relationship with other people, the more than human world and of course, relationship with ourselves.
I will share a poem I wrote when I was there. It was towards the end of the weekend, and I was sitting under a huge oak, kind of going round and round in circles in my head and I looked down and there was a leaf skeleton, and somehow it just made everything click into place.
I haven't got a photo of the one I found because we didn't have our phones with us, so the picture above is from a beautiful book of embroidered leaf sculptures I have by the artist Susanna Bauer who says "dry leaves are fragile beings, and they should be handled with care, without impetuousness or violence, unhurriedly. They need time" and I think that sounds about right.
Every time I see a leaf skeleton,
May I be reminded
Of the beauty there is in imperfection.
Every time I see a leaf skeleton,
May I be reminded
Of the darkness and the light,
The fear and the joy
That we all carry.
Every time I see a leaf skeleton,
May I be reminded
Of Grace
And give it to myself.
Every time I see a leaf skeleton,
May I be reminded
Of the peace and acceptance I felt
When I opened my heart to my whole self.