Peeling Back The Layers

Yesterday morning, I sat in the woods in the company of a magnificent longleaf pine tree.

It’s poker straight trunk stretched at least 80 feet up towards the sky and was topped with wavy branches covered in green needles. The thick, grayish brown bark on said trunk is what caught my eye, drawing me to its base. It's different from the other trees' bark. Longleaf pine bark has a distinct pattern of platelet shapes, resembling the scaly skin on a dinosaur (or dragon) and each scale consists of numerous paper-thin layers.

As I moved my hands up and down the bark, some the outermost layers would flake off easily, and some, I had to work a little harder to pull off. When a layer came off, a new fresher looking, reddish brown surface was revealed.

I took in this tree from root to crown and invited it to share its wisdom. What it showed me was this...

I, too, am peeling back the layers. I’m at this midlife point and it seems less like a crisis and more of an unraveling. Built up layers are starting to fall away. Some of these layers slough off with ease. Others require more work and can be painful to remove. But with each layer gone, more and more of the real me is revealed. I’m beginning to remember who I was before they were added and slowly letting my authentic self emerge and be free.

What about you?

We all have them. Layers of protection, “shoulds”, identities, false beliefs, and more attached to us, creating a thick bark around our core.

If you began to peel back the layers, who would you uncover?

Forest Love,

Julie