An Untapped Relationship

- Communicating With Trees

When you sincerely introduce yourself to another species, you believe in its intelligence and consciousness of what is around it.

Now, a tree has the opportunity to respond or reach out to you because you are open and willing to meet on common ground. You are imparting that you sense there is a universal language in all life.

I experience the moments after I introduce myself, when a tree turns its attention towards me. That attention often expands into a palpable feeling of appreciation and curiosity — and sometimes the tree is surprised! For we are now consciously engaged, no longer complete strangers.

This one, seemingly small act of introducing myself to a tree, opens a direct pathway to growing an intimate relationship with an individual tree.

The more the tree and I communicate with each other, the more subtle, natural doorways begin to open and flourish between us — in and around us.

Looking back to when I first unknowingly started down this path of inter-species communication some 20 years ago, I would now describe it as a journey of remembering — a literal remembering of who I really am in relation to the rest of life that shares this home planet — a gradual awakening through direct experiences.

Through my evolving relationships with other species I have come to understand that there is a universal non-verbal language I like to call our mother tongue. It is telepathic, sensory — a felt sense, a knowing.

How I Introduce Myself To A Tree

• While interspecies communication is largely non-verbal, I do start with a verbal introduction. This anchors me into the moment, my intention and sincerity.
• My name is Joanne, thank you for being here, what you do is so important. I take my time, my words need to be authentic and heartfelt. If they aren't, nature knows, and will mirror that back to me — and nothing much will happen. If that is the case, I wait until I am present...and then I begin again. For this communication must be heart centred — it cannot be forced, it cannot be rushed.
• I then allow a few moments to let my greeting be received. I pause to sense any changes in the space between the tree and I. It teaches me to pay attention to the subtle level of energetic shifting and communication, and continues to refine my knowing sense.
• I have found that the quality of response can be as varied as the trees themselves. Like us, each is unique. Some are soft and subtle and others very direct, clear or excited.
• Some trees are quick to respond while others take more time. I respect that. I want something real. After all, we are new to each other. Ours is a developing relationship. I listen with more than my ears and have learned to trust that what I am experiencing is real.
• Sometimes a tree is trying to get my attention! Often it is a tree I already feel drawn to. Over time I have learned that more often than not, when I feel compelled to hug a tree it is because it has already invited me to do so without me initially realizing. I once heard "Hey you" in my head. My body instinctively turned towards a small grove of Arbutus trees that were calling me over.
• I have discovered that trees that already have ongoing relationships or a lot of direct loving physical contact from humans will often greet me before I greet them. For example, one Giant Sequoia tree in a favourite park has a massive low branch that extends out from the trunk at kid level. The bark along its branch has been worn smooth where many young hands and bodies have climbed onto its welcoming arm.
  Each time I walk by this friendly giant its attention is already focused outwards. This Sequoia has a great warmth about her equal to her size, and dialogue comes easily between us because that aspect of her is regularly engaged with — seasoned, from continual, happy, human contact. After all, it's mostly children that let themselves love her.

Your openness, patience and curiosity will enable you to develop your ability to engage in interspecies communication. You are remembering, relearning, and healing the illusion of separation from this enchanted beautiful earth and your own wholeness.

For a long time now we humans have been taught to distrust our instinctual intelligence and knowing sense. As a result, more often than not, we doubt that what we are feeling or experiencing is trustworthy. Especially when it comes to the subtler levels of experience. Or, we do a pendulum swing from being so out of touch with the real world, that when we have an experience with it, we think it must be magic or supernatural.

Growing a relationship with a tree will refine your ability to trust that what you are experiencing is real, opening you to your own subtle, instinctual intelligence and kinship with all life.

This natural doorway is an untapped relationship in the modern world, where trees and humans can access more of themselves, together.

I have been shown that we humans are actually a golden key — a piece of the great cosmic puzzle on this planet.

In my lifetime we have been taught that humans are a plague on the earth; it is not true. Through inter-species communication with trees we open the doorway to the pristine original earth — a real place we only seem to remember in our dreams, in our longings — something deeply familiar we often can't even name.

If you choose to dedicate yourself to such relationships, remember that all relationships take time to evolve and you don't know where they will take you. Trust that unknowingness. It is best to continually come back to a place of patience and kindness with yourself in this unfolding. We humans have been taught to be much too hard on ourselves.

In my experience tree's want relationships with us. Trees have immense patience and kindness, trust that... welcome that.

Joanne Marks
September 23, 2023

Let's Work Together