Claire Blotter

I first breathed “with fields” many years ago, mesmerized by the original painting, Wheatfield with Partridge, by Vincent Van Gogh at an exhibit at San Francisco’s De Young Museum. I was struck by the painting’s life force, each stalk of wheat rippling vividly in wind like trembling spirit hands. I purchased a postcard of the image which failed to capture its profound beauty. Still, I carried it, soon ripped and faded, with me as I moved from house to house and believe it’s still somewhere in an unpacked box.

Many years later, walking the beach path off Schooner Gulch Road near Point Arena, California, I was stunned to discover a field that could have been the one in Van Gogh’s painting. The sun glimmered off waving golden grasses as if animated. I felt suddenly “high” as I walked slowly through the field, my body streaming with other-worldly energy. 

I’ve since recognized this life force in forests and special gardens, even in the planters at Honolulu Airport. Getting off the plane for my first visit, I commented to a fellow traveler that surely someone should have told me that Hawaiian plants and flowers would be vibrating. The woman looked at me oddly, evidently not seeing what seemed to me the obvious movements of Hawaii’s lush enchanted greenery.

Over the years, I have experimented with different techniques of communicating with trees. I love to listen to redwoods in the beautiful Northern California forests. Sometimes I ask a question. Other times, I simply sit for thirty or forty minutes till some wise voice rises up in me. I have been instructed by trees to make changes in my life that resulted in financial prosperity for years to come.  Changes I would never have thought to make on my own.*

*See naturespeaks.org for 2007 transcript of my interview with more experiences communicating with trees.