Mightar the Mighty

For the past few weeks, I had chosen to do my morning meditation while seated under the giant cottonwood tree in our backyard. One morning as I sat doing the breathing technique I had recently learned, I was pulled out of my focus by a low rumbling sound coming from behind me. I opened my eyes and saw nothing out of the ordinary and returned to my meditation. 

The next time I heard the sound I attempted to ignore it, but the longer it went on, the more it changed, until it sounded more like the gruff and gravelly voice of an old man. I held my body completely still until I determined that this rumbling sound seemed to be coming from inside the tree.

So rather than opening my eyes, I stayed in my meditative position and sent out a telepathic question, “Who are you?”

I received an immediate answer, “I am Mightar” known to some as “Mightar the Mighty”. 

I asked, “Are you speaking from within the tree, or are you the tree itself?” 

Well, as bizarre as it may sound, I sat spellbound while Mightar explained who he was and why he was speaking to me.

He described himself as a principle master protector of the elemental realm. He added that as a soul, rather than choosing to incarnate as a human being, he had instead selected to spend over one thousand lifetimes as distinctive components of the natural world. 

He went on to tell that he had lived more than seventy tree-lives, hundreds as dirt and soil, including the small creatures inhabiting the soils, from bacteria to worms. He mentioned more than one life as the nutrient rich ground-water that seeped into a crystal blue mountain lake, feeding the fish and diving ducks. 

He stated that one of his favorite lives was as sand crystals at the shore of a sheltered bay in the south pacific. He told of existing as birds and sea creatures and even air currents. Mightar said that whenever he chose a tree-life, he would remain in that lifetime until the tree died, whether naturally or from human intervention. 

I asked Mightar why he had chosen to visit with me today and he remarked that from his first days on that spot as a spouted cottonwood seed, he had dreamed of finding a human who could hear his voice. He had spoken to many who lived and worked on the land, but they had never spoken back to him. He insisted that he was not lonely, only curious what it would be like to have a conversation with a person.

We communicated for at least an hour that morning, until I explained I would need to go inside for breakfast. When I rose up from my cushion, I wrapped my arms as far as I could reach around the huge trunk of the beautiful tree-entity and promised I would soon return. 

For that time on, as long as we lived in that house, I visited with Mightar each morning and he entertained me with great tales of his adventures as a protector of the natural world, during frightening natural disasters like floods, windstorms and lighting strikes, as well as the peace and tranquility of one life as a giant white oak tree and the silent grace of a great Icelandic glacier.

Leaving Mightar was the hardest part of our move from that country house and I clung to him with a lengthy goodbye, promising I would remember our days together. 

A few months later we drove by the old country house to see what improvements the new owners had made and at first glance my heart sank to my feet and my eyes burned with tears as we observed a new pristine green lawn in the very spot Mightar had stood for over one hundred years. I was nearly unconsolable until I was reminded that my great friend was probably already searching out a new home and a new adventure. 

I will always miss that grand old tree, but every time I see a new seedling spring up from the ground I know it very well could be the return of the Mighty Mightar.