Trees have mastered the ability to make three-dimensional space out of flat energy, raising it up above the Earth.

September Aspens at Big Bar Lake

There, the flat energy spreads, not by extension but by a specific form of thickening, in multiple simultaneous moments from points, called buds. The many are one.

Nectarine Buds above Canoe Bay

Up there, these flats are called planes. The words plan, or map, and plain, or flat land, are all part of this matrix. Yes, each leaf is a map.

Each leaf is a prairie. Whether it is held …

Dogwoods and Maples along the Grey Canal.

… or released, back to the “Earthly plain”, which takes them in again, because they are one, and flattens them, because that is what flat energy does.

The resulting maps of the world can guide you…

… but make no mistake, they will lead you to a different country than the one that maps like this …

lead you to, but no less meaningful and no less able to place you in space. This placement within energy uniting, opening, then opening further, even when closing, comes from the word leaf as well, and is a map.

Call that love. In comparison, this is a map of settlement, trade, and claiming. It could have been made in 1858.

But, of course, in some cultures love is tied up with property. It’s a thing.