Lessons of the Burmis Tree

by Marlene Lacey

peace comes with the patience to see the beautiful

The Burmis Tree is the most photographed tree in the world. It was sentenced to perch on a ridge along Highway 3, in Southern Alberta, Canada, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, for over 740 years. Its needles were lost in 1978; Chinook winds toppled it in 1998; it was vandalized in 2004. It suffers by living, by acts of love, and by acts of violence. It symbolizes all variations of struggle: right and wrong, life and death, love and hate, safety and danger, peace and violence. At one angle it is lovely, at another grotesque; it has moments of vulnerability and moments of strength; it has stages of dying and stages of immortality. Judgment is a matter of perception. Combine the right light and just the right perspective with an exercise of patience, it is possible to capture an essence. This is a process that creates a magical healing, medicinal joy arising from the sense of peace and calm experienced. Whenever I notice and respect the world around me and whenever I use patience as a tool, I find the light that erases the dark shadows cast by prejudgments. Peace travels the path lit with the beauty of all things.

Lessons of the Tree

#1
When angered, frustrated,
and unable to find my way,
I will simply take a deep breath,
open my mind and wait
for the light to show
me the beauty.
I'm there when I can breathe easily.
Choosing to perceive beauty
in all things,
including myself,
is an exercise of will,
determination, and above all, patience.

#2

My family calls it my tree; it is my soul.
It is okay to let me be.
I will always be here—
not always in a recognizable form
that needs wiring or rewiring.
You need not fix a sigh of relief.
The self is nothing of matter;
it is hard to realize "nothing" matters.
The light of understanding is everywhere.
This is the lesson
of the Burmis Tree.

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more information on the Burmis Tree.