The PureLights of Ohm Totem Read Online Free PDF Page B

toes.
    Startled again, she jumped off.
    “It’s alright. All of us trees are good trees. I have a seat right here, just for sitting, if you'd like,” said the sweet voice.
    Zoey stopped breathing for a moment. She put her hand and ear against the bark of the tree, trying to pinpoint where the speakers were located. After a brief period of quiet and hearing nothing, she stepped back, inspecting the tree by its entirety.
    Glowing green leaves and twisting bark were the only things different about the tree, so she bent down, feeling the soil dampened from the melted snow that had covered the area minutes before, thinking a speaker might be there.
    Is the tree actually talking to me ?
    “You are merely listening,” responded the tree.
    Zoey smiled, looking around the forest. “Trees don’t talk. Who is this? Coda?” She was convinced a joke was being played on her.
    “Come—sit,” beckoned the tree.
    Zoey rolled her eyes. “Okay, whatever.”
    She slowly sat down on the knot in the tree. She couldn’t relax, wondering what was going to zap her next. She even wondered why she was being so silly, doing what a tree, or whatever it was, had asked her to do. This is a joke, she thought. “Who’s playing a joke on me?” she said out loud.
    As she sat, Zoey felt the wave of tingling go through her body again. It felt weird to her, almost like a tickle and she laughed.
    “I'm the Snow Tree.”
    “Snow Tree?” Zoey snorted. She waited for a prankster to jump out of its hiding place, camera in hand.
    “There’s no such thing as a Snow Tree. Who’s saying that?”
    “Oh?” said the voice. “I am a Snow Tree.” And, as if on cue, the tree started to sprinkle snowflakes onto Zoey.
    Zoey jumped up from the seat. “Brrr, that's cold.” She glanced up at the Snow Tree to see snow forming on it’s branches, and dropping to the ground.
    “Wow,” said Zoey, “are you really talking to me?”
    “You’re merely listening,” replied the tree.
    “Can all trees talk?”
    “Yes, most can, and most do.”
    “Nuh-uh,” said Zoey. “Then how come I can’t hear them?”
    “You’ve never listened,” replied the tree. “You’ve never paid attention. You were focused on the snow when you heard my voice. The snow is a big part of me, so it was easier for you to hear me.”
    Zoey furrowed her brow. She didn’t understand, and only replied with a lonely, “Oh.”
    “Just look around,” said the Snow Tree.
    As Zoey looked at the landscape, she saw what she usually saw in the forest; trees slowly rocking in soft wind with ferns shadowed underneath, wild green grasses off in the distance bathed by the glow of the sun, the sound of the creek flowing against rocks and roots, and birds flying from branch to branch while singing their own tunes.
    “What do you see and hear, Zoey?”
    Zoey shrugged her shoulders, mumbling, “I don’t know.”
    “You don't see and hear the forest talking?”
    “I guess,” replied Zoey.
    “Good. You're listening. Now, I want to show you something.”
    After a short pause, the Snow Tree said, “Look at the fern in front of you.”
    “It’s a pretty fern,” Zoey said, as if that was what the tree wanted to hear.
    “Yes, it is,” said the Snow Tree. “Now come and sit back down on my perch.”
    Zoey shrugged her shoulders and sat down on the knot at the tree’s base. “Okay, here I am, now what?”
    “When you stop thinking about other things,” replied the Snow Tree, “and pay attention only to the fern, then you’ll truly be able to see it in a way that the inhabitants of the forest see it.”
    Zoey rolled her eyes and lowered her head, murmuring, “I see the fern.”
    “Let your eyes relax. Do you see who’s taking care of it?”
    “Is it you?” asked Zoey.
    “In some ways I’m its caretaker, but I don’t care for it like my friends do. If you watch the fern without any thought of yourself, or any thought of what you think I want to hear, then I’ll help you find