Romancing the tree
Trees are wonderful, stalwart creations, one of God’s greatest gifts to us. They humble us, make us realize that all we can do it plant them and care for them and make them grow past the sapling stage. Then, once their roots have grown deep and found a source of water to drink from, we leave them alone to grow as they wish, to turn leafy and sheltering, a shady home for nesting birds. When the season comes, they shed their leaves and stand almost naked for a while before once more bursting into leaf or bloom to start its life cycle once again.
I love trees. Outside my window a big tree stands sheltering me with its lush leaves. It gives me birds that rustle and chirp. It stands between me and the high rise garage across the street. It makes me believe I still live in the country when in fact I live on the third floor of an old condominium. I love looking out of my window or my porch especially when it rains and watch the water fall in drops or solid walls, hitting the street and leaving its own kind of shine.
Psychologists also love trees because they are basically lovable and also because they are infused with meaning. Tree stories are parallel to human stories. They are born from seeds just like we are born from the union of an egg and a seed. We are taken care of initially in our mother’s womb and then in the parental home until we finally leave and search for lives of our own, until we metaphorically find our own water source. Then we can take care of ourselves.
Not that our problems end there. Our problems begin there and we go through our own cycles of feeling wretched so we sort of shed our leaves and think we stand naked before the world and then we slowly fix ourselves and suddenly look up and find that we are blooming and smiling again for a while anyway until the next disaster strikes. And another life cycle begins.
If you want some guidance or even some recreation, please come to the Carl Jung Circle Center’s “Romancing the Tree” seminar on Thursday, Sept. 27 at the Ateneo Rockwell. It begins at 9:30 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. It will cost you only P4,800. This includes materials and morning snacks. To reserve send your name, email address and cell phone number to 0917-8317773 or jungphilippines@yahoo.com. There are first-come first served and no-deposit-slip-no-confirmed-slot policies. I suggest you make reservations today. The reservation bar closes on Sept. 21.
That Thursday will begin with a short talk on trees by Dr. Arman Palijon, an urban forester from UP Los Banos. He will be followed by environmental advocates Nina Lojo and Baby del Mundo who will talk about the greening of your spaces. And then. . . and then. . . I will teach you the very basics of my writing style, which should help you in the later discovery of what the tree you will draw will tell you about your life now. O, di ba?
After that we break for lunch. In the afternoon Jungian psychologist Rose Yenko will discuss trees as symbols in myths. Then she will discuss trees as symbols of you. You will discover what a tree means to you now. Then you will write about it.
I actually have taken this seminar twice before. The first time was soon after my stroke and I came up with a rather scrawny, colorless tree, drawn with crayons but I guess I was then light-headed and light-handed because it was a very weak drawing. Rose was out of the country then and I remember taking it under Babes Lioanag, who has since sadly passed away, though as I write this now I seem to see her throwing back her head and laughing. She was wonderful to work with.
After that we did our first “Romancing the Tree” seminar where I also taught a short class in writing. I think I also drew then, though I don’t remember what I did. By then I was getting closer to the age I am now – normal really but prone to more and more senior moments. So even I am looking forward to this just to see if I can still teach again. It should be fun.
Today I practiced drawing a tree. It looks like a violent tree. Maybe because I’m so angry at the company where I sent my car to be repaired. They claimed they needed more spare parts and charged me P36,000 more. It stopped twice on the way home. The second time it would not start again. Fortunately it stopped at the end of my block. Drivers had to push it home. I suspect my anger shows in this drawing of my tree. But never mind, by the Sept. 27th I should have my car back, I should be a much calmer person. We will have a good time.
* * *
Please text your comments to 0917-8155570.
