誰かに願いを届けたい時は、
大木の幹に触れて思いをその木に伝えるといい、と聞いたことがあります。
その木の根に隣の木の根が触れて、
地球上ではそうやって、誰かの近くの木まで思いが届けられるというのです。
同じような話がキノコにもあることを最近知りました。
土の中の糸状の菌が隣のキノコとつながって、世界中にネットワークを張り巡らしているといいます。
おとぎ話に出てくるキノコは、テーブルになったり、椅子になったり、
物語を不思議に装飾してくれます。
そういう体験があるからでしょうか、女性たちは写真に夢中。
（男性たちは、食べられる食べられないの話になりがちなようですが。笑）
今年何度目かのキノコに出会った時私は何をやっていたかというと、近所の森の湧水の水質調査のお手伝いです。
水温、酸性度（水素イオン濃度）、電気伝導率、水量。
これを十数年調べ続けているおじさんの後をついて森を歩いていました。
１月から３月まで雨が少ないと、夏にはこのポイントは枯れてしまうんだよ。
とおじさんは教えてくれました。
富士山は100年前に降った雪が柿田川に湧いてくるって言ってるけどね。ここは、数ヶ月。
そして、雨が土に染み込むように町の舗装材を変えてもらうよう、おじさんたちが行政に働きかけていることも教えてくれました。
この日は時々雨も降ってきて足元が悪く、台風の影響で風もややあったので、下を向いて歩き続けたのですが、土の中の糸状菌やら浸み込んでいく雨のことやらを考えるにはちょうどよく、
こうやって、土やら木やら水やらキノコと対話しながら歩けるちょっとした贅沢をありがたく思い、
玄関先で靴にこびりついた泥を落としながら、次の雨の日は長靴だなと先を楽しみにしていることを嬉しく感じていました。
私の密かな願いは、誰かに届いているでしょうか。
I’ve heard that...
When you want for someone to realize your wish, you’d better go and touch a big tree.
The thinking around this notion is that because a tree’s roots come into contact with the roots of the next tree, and that tree’s roots to the next tree, and so on and so on, that the trees, together, through this intertwined, linked network of deep-rooted connections, will transfer your wish message to all the neighboring trees of the big tree you originally told your wish too. Communicating your wish wider and farther. Increasing the chances of the wish coming true.
I was also taught that…
Mushrooms, too, could transfer your wish.
Filamentous fungi have networks connecting the whole world within the earth.
In Fairy Tales, mushrooms and toadstools sometimes become tables and chairs. Such representation and depiction can capture our imagination and draw our minds away from our own real world and relocate us into a magical, fantasy world. Females from our Woods Preservation Group who might have experienced such a Fairy World when they were children bounded in with excitement and joy, and started snapping pictures of some mushrooms that we found.
While they were fervently clicking away and taking their pictures, I was busily engaged in helping a man who researches the natural spring waters of these woods. He has been checking on different conditions and recording data on such items as temperature, acidity, electrical conductivity, and physical quantity of it for ten-odd years now. He taught me that if we have little rainfall during the winter, the water spring dries up the following summer.
For the health of the spring and the woods’ ecosystem he asked our local government to change the material and composition of the road into a permeable one. I’ve never known that mere citizens can move a government to action like that.
On this particular day an occasional rain fell, making it somewhat muddy underfoot. Quite a strong wind blew too. So, I walked around keeping my head down and focused intently on the ground, watching where I stepped, avoiding an exposed tree root here and there, dodging or jumping over puddles where I could, whilst at the same time in my mind I turned over various things and thoughts about the fungi, tree roots, and ground water. I was thankful for such a precious occasion as this. To be able to wander freely amongst nature, and with a real sense and feeling of being able to communicate intimately, even without words, as if at one, with the soil, trees, water, and, mushrooms surrounding me.
Later, back at my home, as I brushed off the mud from my hiking boots I marveled at the natural world and was already and excitedly looking forward to when I could have such a deep and emotive experience again. Next time though, I will be sure to put on proper rain shoes.
By the way, I wondered, has my wish reached somebody yet?
