
You will find something more in woods than in books. Trees and stones
will teach you that which you can never learn from masters. (Saint Bernard)
Saint Bernard used the metaphor of trees to help us understand that wisdom is not intellectual--it is experiential, organic, and natural. The woods are a place where there may be darkness, dampness, and something scary or unknown around every bend in the path--if there even is a path! When we open ourselves to the silent wisdom of Nature and drink in the refreshing waters that she provides, we drink of the wisdom of the natural world.
Great American poet Walt Whitman understood when he said, "Why are there trees I never walk under but
large and melodious thoughts descend upon me? " Our task as spiritual beings is to be open to receiving those "melodious thoughts" and ponder them in our hearts. This is what the masters do in order to become masters. This is what we can do to focus on our own spiritual growth and development.
Today I open my heart and mind to the Wisdom of the natural world and delight in the experience of growing wiser.