“We wish to become a pine tree with the wind singing in our branches, because we believe that a pine tree does not suffer.” Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching.

We live under the canopy of the Deodar
with long, horizontal, drooping branches
overreaching our home, calming our senses;
a green and lush canopy of cedar stillness
in graceful boughs, undulating, breathing
with each push of air, each alighting bird.

How little we know of life in our several seasons
but that we care, we love, and we suffer.
We imagine what may yet bring suffering
and with every stir of a portending wind –
flutter, breeze, gust, or gale –
we search for ways out of its grasp.

Over us the Deodar resides, layered
in long limbs hovering in somber reaches,
from whose masses of green and gray
come solace for suffering as it suffers not.
From its heights it drips rain in nourishing showers
wafts about it a green swirl of silence
like whispering words about living and dying,
of nirvana and the end of suffering.

Portland, Oregon – February 17, 2017

The Deodara cedar is common in Cascadia and in our own yard in which two younger versions are ascending to 20-30 feet near the giant in my photo.  Interesting that the name “Deodar” is from the Hindi deod ā r < Sanskrit devad ā ru, equivalent to deva god + d ā ru wood, or, “wood of the gods.” The OED uses “timber” of the gods.  This noble appellation is apparently given due to the hardness and durability of the wood.  Nice to know!

Photo is my own, taken on February 17, 2017