Seeing the Unseen

Our health and well-being depend on the quality of our connections to the land, to one another, and to ourselves. But today, many of us feel quite alone and disconnected, often to the degree that we may even believe that deep connection is unattainable. Nothing could be further from the truth though. Closer to the mark is that every one of us is like a maple tree in the forest. At a glance we may appear to stand alone, but look a little deeper and in reality the maple tree in the forest and each one of us is fundamentally and intimately interconnected, forming an ecosystem. Together the maples, oaks, and pines weave together a tapestry of branches both strong and flexible—with leaves of multiple shades of greens and trunks of different thicknesses and strengths. As a unit, these trees provide shelter to one another from damaging winds. Their leaves work in unison to provide shade and keep life-sustaining moisture available in the soil. Walk into a forest and you will feel the break in the wind and the rise in humidity.

Beneath the surface where the roots intertwine there is an even deeper sharing occurring. One tree’s root system merges into all the others, forming a living network that shares resources, nutrients, and even messages. If one tree comes under attack from insect or disease, it will alert the other trees in the forest through chemical messengers, giving them time to prepare.¹ What’s more, there is some evidence that a healthy tree can share some of the sugars it has manufactured from captured sunlight with other smaller or challenged trees nearby.²

We see this web of interconnection with a maple and an oak in the northeast United States. We also see it with a grizzly bear and the great western hemlock and Sitka spruce of the Pacific Northwest temperate rainforests. The grizzly bear that is feeding on salmon in the rivers of the Pacific Northwest is one of the fibers of interconnection that allow trees to grow and thrive with nutrients from the ocean more than one hundred miles away.³ As the grizzlies eat, they toss the remains of the salmon they have plucked from the rivers onto the shores of these wild and isolated places. The life force that moves from the small herring in the ocean, into the salmon, then into the bears eventually merges into the soil microbes, and then into the plants themselves, all the while invisible to us humans. Yet, all these animals and plants are part of a relationship that allows plants to grow in places they otherwise could not. The land ecosystem is not isolated from the ocean, though it may be far away. What other interconnections that we haven’t discovered simply because we haven’t been able to tune into them allow beings to thrive?

We human animals are just as interconnected, though at times we all struggle to feel it. We can perceive our own living networks of connection if we slow down, look within, and consciously reach out to others. By trying to see the unseen, we will discover that our fears, dreams, joys, and sorrows are not ours alone but are shared by all. It’s not just you who has worried about paying the rent. It’s not just you who hurts when your child struggles. It’s not just you with fears about the future. As we start to share our challenges and successes, we learn that our lives are intertwined with the lives of family and strangers alike, and theirs with ours. In our times of strength and clarity, we see that we can give back to and share with those in need. In our times of struggle, we can practice opening ourselves to the support of the community and listening to the messages of how to care for and steady ourselves.

Try: Pick a time and place to take a walk and work with the intention to See the Unseen. When you are ready to begin, pause for a bit and, if it feels comfortable, close your eyes. Feel deeply into your present-moment experience. What does your body feel like just now? Take some time and scan slowly from head to toe. Notice different sensations your skin may be experiencing in different body regions. The warmth of the sun or cool touch of a breeze on your face or arm. The texture and weight of your clothes and the pull of gravity. Explore for a little bit where your body stops and everything else begins. Is it truly solid and defined? Sense where the air you breathe comes from and when you exhale how it mixes with the atmosphere around you; it is coming from the trees and plants and is breathed back in by them. Feel or imagine the sounds you are hearing as waves present in the world around you and vibrating inside of you at the same time.

After a few minutes of practice in this way, allow your eyes to open and take a slow stroll in a wooded or natural area, if available to you, or simply stand beneath a tree. Stay with the intention to see the unseen and be open to feeling the interconnectedness of all things. As you wander, it is natural that thoughts will arise and at times you will become lost in them. When you notice that this has happened, you can celebrate the coming back to the present moment. Simply rest your attention once more on your sensory experience and lean into the blurred line between where you stop and the natural world begins.