The Queen of Fisherfield Forest

Written In November 2020

The Fisherfield Tree

Have you walked it before? The red blazed trail that loops around Fisherfield in Newbury, NH?

There is a Queen who lives along the way... a legend I am most certain. If the forest is a place that delights and enthralls you, if trees speak to you and move you in their presence and stillness, then in this time of quiet and transformation, consider seeking her out... sit with her for a spell. 

A dear friend had invited me on this hike, and we kept our eyes out for the red blazes that would lead us around this loop. I may have been taken by our conversation, or the lichen on the fallen trees around us, or perhaps listening to the narrative of my own mind... because suddenly, as I looked up, THIS TREE was right before us. I stopped in my tracks, momentarily speechless... awed. "This tree is DEFINITELY a SHE" I said to my friend after a short interlude, unsure if she would understand what I meant. I approached HER with a sort of reverence... "She isn't only a SHE..." I announced, barely able to contain my excitement. "SHE is a QUEEN. She must be THE QUEEN of this forest!" There seemed to be no other way to describe this magnificent being in front of us.

The circumference of her trunk was enormous, her bark rippled and wisened and thick with age. At her base, a natural arched doorway yawning into the depths of her. Perhaps to welcome some woodland creature in from a storm; or a flight of winged fairies, or an invitation to another world entirely. Not ten feet up her tall wide self grew outward the longest branch I have ever seen in my life, reaching 30 or 40 feet or more, bowing first to the ground to create a gateway for the creatures who walked beneath it, before rising up and stretching onward and around. "Was this a gateway or portal to another world or time?" a voice within me whispered.

I felt transformed back to my childhood, when I would gallop on my imaginary horse through wooded acres filled with kingdoms or fly in my tree-fort spaceship to planetary discoveries light years away. To a time when anything seemed possible... even a chance meeting with a queen.

Was it allergies that were making my eyes sting, or the movement and stirrings within me? Had I known up until this very moment that the child I once was lived within me still; A child whose presence had surprised me as much as the QUEEN's? Had I buried her so deeply all these years under these grown up layers that I had forgotten her, or had she been there all along, waiting for me to remember WHO she was... the gift of magic and wonder all around. A Queen.

Had a tiny seedling believed that one day she would be THIS... sprouting, taking root, and eventually ruling quietly and with deep reverence over the entire forest and beyond. I wondered if the mountains bowed to her, if the sun passed this way just to spread its golden glow on her. Wondered if the moonlight and fireflies put on their nightly summer features just to entertain her. I wondered if she measured time in the breath of day and night, or of the seasons that had spread themselves out over decades, or if she was life and time itself, unmeasured though ever present.

I thought of her during the evening storm a few nights ago, and its furied touch downs; I thought of time, and wisdom. Of balance and life. Of letting go and gathering around. I thought of breath, and resilience; of how time can fold upon itself for renewal and restoration. And I thought of how I shall return to her once again, as the trees and forests and mountains do, and sit with her for a spell so I can listen some more.

-mvierzen, 05/2020