This is Stella

 This is Stella, which (of course) means 'star,' because that's what she's made of (as we all are).  She is my ancestor, which I know because today she told me so.  She called me over to her in a rainstorm, and then poured her healing into me.  Our energies connected, and as I flattened my back into her trunk I will filled with the sweetest of love.  She healed me, and all I wanted was to rest in her embrace for days.

I eventually tore myself away, and continued along my path.  On the rest of the walk I was pulled into other copses, or off the trail in other directions, and every time it was to retrieve an unseen piece of trash.  Uncanny, to find so much trash off the trail in the direction I was being pulled.

​But the real take away is that we are healing each other, the woods and I.

(To remember Stella I removed a tiny branch from her trunk and brought it home with me.  As I told my son this story, he said, "Did you ask her first?"  OY.  The wisdom of kids.  I hadn't.  Next time I will.