When I was a Girl Scout in Des Moines, Iowa, I learned that if I was lost in a forest, to look for moss as it would be growing on the north side of trees.  Yesterday at Muir Woods I saw moss growing 360 degrees around a tree.  There is moisture at Muir Woods and maybe it is for us to feel and invite fluidity flowing 360 degrees around and in us too.

As to judgment, Ram Dass had this to say:

When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree. The minute you get near humans, you lose all of that. And you are constantly saying, ‘you’re too this, or I’m too this.’ That judging mind comes in.  And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.

Yesterday I saw a man setting up his violin to serenade the trees. The creek was so loud I didn’t hear his playing but I’m sure the trees felt the vibrations and intention stirring through their cells. Today I receive myself as a tree.