The small leaf incident at Beeston Castle
This happened one autumn day walking down from Beeston Castle in Cheshire. We had had a lovely walk, and M had been trying to find the right time to quiz me about my new-found interest in all things druid. I was trying to find a way of explaining to her why and how I was interested in Druidry, but none of the concepts were making sense to her. I went back to basic concepts. I explained how synchronicity and feedback from nature were the cornerstones of my beliefs, and the foundation from which my work arose. She asked for a demonstration. I said that catching a falling leaf would be a perfect seasonal example. As I stood under an oak tree I asked for a leaf to fall. It was autumn, and so of course one did. I caught it with no effort. M said “Coincidence, I bet I can’t do that“.
She tried to catch the next five falling leaves, but missed them all. “You’re trying too hard“, I said. “Ask the oak tree nicely, and then let yourself receive one.” She looked at me like I was mad, but when she saw my straight face, she went along with it. She said out loud, “Can I have a SMALL leaf to catch, please?” Seconds later the smallest oak leaf I have ever seen fluttered down perfectly straight and gently in front of her, She caught it with ease.
From that moment on she never asked me to explain my work again. She knew.
To Catch a Falling Leaf
Yesterday I was waiting to do an exercise class in the local park. As we all waited I saw that the trees around were dropping leaves so as a warm-up I stood underneath one of the trees and waited for a leaf to fall. I waited for several minutes, bouncing around under the tree. No leaf fell now, despite a breeze. A colleague even kicked the tree in jest to try to make one fall. Nothing. I gave up as the class started,
Today I was running in Tatton Park. As you enter the gates the trees crowd the road through the estate, but as I jogged beyond this line the view opened out as the trees became fewer and more separated, receding back from the road. As the view opened out so did my mind. I began to think about some of the concepts that Alan Watts had been talking about in his lectures on religion and god. He was explaining the Hindu concept of creation and how they believed that life was a play, acted out by the one god Brahma who had split himself up into all the myriad forms of the universe. He had grown bored of being omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent – he knew everything, so how could he ever find wonder? Why, by splitting himself up into various forms and making them forget who they originally were. In this way he sought to conceal his true identity from himself.
As I went through all this in my mind a set of philosophical questions arose,
“Why? What was the purpose in seeking to hide from yourself ALL THE TIME? Sure, a tiny tiny fraction of people would achieve enlightenment and realise that they were the god playing this game, but, what of everyone else? What of their never-knowing lives? What did their lives have in them that made this play worth creating, and worth acting out as a human?”
At that exact moment as the questions got posed a leaf fell out of the sky and drifted gently towards me. I continued running but instinctively moved my hand out towards it and with no effort at all I clutched it as it fell into my hand. It was a chestnut tree leaf.
I looked around. There were no chestnut trees within 50 feet of where I was running! Then I had a realisation. I had my answer to the questions. The WONDER that I felt at that moment, THAT was the god reflecting back on itself the surprise, the joy and the wondrous feeling that comes of such synchro-mystic moments. THAT was why we are here. Wow. Life, the Universe and Everything revealed by a falling leaf.
