Family Trees

One of the things that I have noticed as I have been working with people over the years, is that people are proud of their family trees.  Not the “son of a son” type family tree, but the big old trees in their yards or on their acreages.  These trees have stories of time and family involvement.  

Let me give you a “for instance”.  We have an apple tree in our yard that is now nineteen years old.  Her name is BJ.  She is our family tree.   She is now quite large and shields our yard from the folks across the back fence.

  

 

This is a picture of BJ in bloom taken in late May of 2009 

 

 

When my husband and I married, our neighbours gave us a gift certificate as a wedding gift.  We bought an apple tree and named her with the initials from our neighbours.  That was in 2004.  She was hardly a twig!  We have nurtured her, fed her, sang to her, and babied her. The second year, she had five apples. Since then, she has always produced apples, although we have lost many of them to heavy hail storms.

BJ is a living record of our life together.  Our Ancestors understood the importance of being able to have visible legacy, such as a tree or a grove, that they could point to and show that the family not only honoured Mother Nature and the Green God, but that the tree or grove was distinctive, and honoured the family.  

Here is another story of a family tree or set of trees.  The summer that I was nine, my parents had forty small maple trees shipped to the farm.  My Dad said that they were needed to create a wind break along our quarter of a mile lane and some of them would shade the garden and protect it from the wind.  The trees did not seem much taller than me.  They grew quickly and sturdily, and, by the time I left home, the maple grove was fully grown.  Every time I returned to the farm, the grove was a touch point for me.

I have heard the stories of many family trees.  Trees planted for each child born into the family.  Trees planted to honour the passing of a family member.  Trees planted when the family moved to a different house and yard.  Trees planted when someone graduated either school, college/university, or in a trade.  One of our neighbours has a yard full of cherry trees and apple trees as they planted a tree when each of their four children were born.

Perhaps it is time to think about planting a family tree.

Many blessings,

Judy 

July 1 2023

                                               Picture is from Kelvern Celtic Society page

Our Ancestors had stories and ceremonies for every month of the year.  July rolls around and people talk about how Julius Caesar created the Western world calendar in about 45 B.C.  July is named after him.   

The patron Goddess of July is the Goddess, Athena.  She has many aspects – Warrior goddess, goddess of wisdom, goddess of goodness, goddess of common sense.  Most of us know her as a Greek goddess, however, she has roots in African and Celtic belief systems.

Some of the things to know about July from an ancestral belief system are:

• the gemstone for July is a ruby
• July is about prospering, enjoying and attuning with nature
• in Europe, sometimes called the month of the barley harvest
• days grow shorter as a sign of reversal
• the strongest healing properties in July are prevention and protection
• the tree of July is the oak tree

Happy July 1! 

Many blessings,

Judy

The Beauty of Silence

Picture from Markelt.wordpress.com

Have you ever felt over whelmed by all the noise in the world around you?  Whether you work in an office or in a mall, or even in your home, all kinds of noises grace your waking and sleeping moments.  WE are so accustomed to noise from our furnaces, air conditioners, children, vehicles, dogs, cats, pets, houses, and so on, that we really do not know what the sound of silence is like.

During this time, as our lives begin to change, and we must deal with our “stuff”, silence will be required.  When we hear noises, we allow our egos to distract us because we really do not want to do this work – it is hard and painful and rakes up stuff we would like to leave in the closet.  Yet, in the silence, we can pull out the images of our past and look at them objectively, without hearing that running commentary in our heads.  Yes, you can tell your Ego to go and sit on your left shoulder for the next one half hour as you quietly reconstruct sad or angry images into images that are positive, and present a level of growth that you have not remembered up to this time.

In the silence, you will hear the voice of the Angels, coaxing you along the discovery of the depths of wisdom and compassion that you were unaware of – compassion that comes from the heart and the mind.  You will have the realization that the person who seemed to cause you pain was totally unaware of their effect.  Even more surprising, in silence, you get a look at the person’s background, and you see that they are so uninformed and so uneducated that they simply had no other way of knowing how to act.  

In the silence, however, you realize that you can always choose your response to a situation.  You can choose to be angry or, as my young friend says, “conflictful”.  Or, you can choose a moment of silence to compose yourself, and to respond with silence, recognizing that all is well. 

Choose to experience silence today.

Many blessings,

Judy