Intricate Simplicity

Reading The Sacred Tree has really been a moving experience, and I am so glad that it is one of the texts for this class. The lessons to be learned from this specific book, to me, are so important, but ones that we often ignore in such a fast paced society. It encourages us to and proves that we can indeed live simply and with nature. What I find so interesting is that even though the principles of The Sacred Tree are based upon things that we experience everyday (i.e. nature, human interaction, emotions, etc.), and would usually pass them off as "standard" in our day to day lives, the intricacies within it are plentiful. Take the medicine wheel for example, it holds so many different meanings and representations, ones that go much deeper than its outwardly simple structure. Similarly intriguing is the idea of wholeness and/or oneness, that is that everything in our living world, physical or nonphysical, is in fact connected. How can this not be true, when we are all living on the same earth and using the same resources that it so generously provides? I know a handful of people who would read through The Sacred Tree and see it as nothing more than a book, a collection of "otherworldly ideas" that don't fit into the 21st century. But what I have realized through The Sacred Tree, that even the skeptics have the capacity to apply its knowledge to their lives and that these ideals do not discriminate. Like Dr. Jane Goodall states in the final words of her introduction, "We have so much, in our modern western world, to learn from the Indigenous wisdom that is embedded in this delightful book." I am so excited to learn as much as I can.