Ash & Elm...Black Buds, Red Flowers

The Elm buds have broken open & flowered over this last week... gorgeous little balls of red flowers, bursting out of oval black buds.

Elm

It's funny how your awareness changes as life goes on... There was a line of huge elm trees along the riverside where I lived as a teenager, sadly they were felled due to Dutch Elm disease in the '80's. I used to spend a great deal of time around them, so I can hardly believe I didn't see the buds & flowers develop... but maybe they didn't register in the same way, or maybe more pressing thoughts meant that the memory of them eludes me. I remember my granddad showing me their leaves when I was little, and comparing them to the beech & alder, to show me their differences... I really don't know if he ever pointed out the flowers... 

On the other hand, there are all sorts of things I know about, but have no recollection of how or where I learnt, but they seem sufficiently important that I should remember. Fascinating things aren't they... our brain, memory & power of recall! It's fascinating to me that some innocuous event or conversation sticks in the memory...  others are elusive, but the knowledge gained remains. Or is it more a case of certain things being lodged in the recall tapes of our mind? You know... the same old tales that are continually recounted, events that never fail to be brought up in certain lines of conversation with people who share our lives.

Another thing I remember Granddad explaining was that you don't forget something... everything is there, stored in your brain. It's just the power of recall that is sometimes the problem! 

The black buds and red flowers brought the ash tree to mind, I'd never really thought of these similarities.  

Ash 

 When people access a past life memory... or perhaps a memory of their ancestors, maybe it's similar to the way we recall certain things from our life-time... certain events are replayed clearly in our mind, others we just know, others just seem to be forgotten. Because its all there, stored somewhere, everything we have ever done, seen, learned.... conscious & unconscious... the problem is our power of re-call...

Some people seem to remember loads of detail & specific events in their lives, others don't... I don't. Is it a problem? Sometimes it could be... sometimes memories are blocked due to some trauma emotional dys-funtion, sometimes those repeated recalls may point to underlying issues, some are due to impairment of brain function etc...but not always, it depends what they are & on the person. 

But, like the buds & flowers of these two trees, we may share similarities with others but we are distinct individuals. This life may share similarities with another, but it is a different life. We may be rooted in different places, but we share the same earth & sky, are nourished & affected by the same elements... perhaps in different ways, but we share....