The oak tree sits on the hillside, a robust Coast Live Oak thriving in its homeland, its gnarled trunk pushing up from the terraced slope, pushing first towards the west and the Golden Gate, then arching back to the east and the summit of the Berkeley Hills, its four main branches spiraling around themselves like a vortex, dendritic calligraphies fanning outwards, the branches searching for light in one direction then doubling back, twisting their way toward the expanding canopy, dispersing the one into many, dividing the mass into perfectly proportioned pieces, the branches diminishing as they reach further and further outwards and upwards, the sturdy heartwood yielding to pliable stems, the stems yielding to individual holly-like leaves, each leaf manning its own invaluable post, each oriented to gather its own slice of sunshine, each drawing up the moisture from the invisible roots, the roots mirroring the branches above, probing the earth, holding the earth, and being held, the many contributing to the the one, the tree in its entirety celebrating just one of the inimitable forms a living organism can take, its beauty and presence whispering a silent and enduring reminder of the teeming miraculousness of life itself.
Every tree is a doorway, an animate threshold connecting the darkness with the light, the solid with the ethereal, the domain of earth with the umbrella of heaven.
Austin Hill Shaw is a creativity expert, author, writer, architectural designer, and mapmaker of creativity across art, science, and religion. He specializes in helping others tap into and utilize the creative life force in everything they do. He can be reached at austin@austinhillshaw.com.