{"id":3208,"date":"2025-11-16T00:50:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T21:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/terradisimana.com\/simanas-diaries-5-the-birch-tree\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T00:50:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T21:50:29","slug":"simanas-diaries-5-the-birch-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terradisimana.com\/en\/simanas-diaries-5-the-birch-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"Simana\u2019s Diaries -5- The Birch Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>By the time <\/p>\n<p>Simana turned eight, Ba\u015fkam had stopped asking her questions. He no longer explained the answers; he simply let her smell them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>One morning, they stepped out of the tent together. On the edge of the steppe, they descended into a valley where the wind had fallen silent.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Ba\u015fkam bent down, parted the soil with his hand, and held out a small leaf to Simana.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\u201cWhat does <\/p>\n<p>this smell like?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Simana sniffed the leaf; it was bitter but refreshing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cAnger\u2026\u201d she said, \u201cBut anger that\u2019s about to pass,\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Ba\u015fkam smiled. He recognized it now: viper\u2019s grass.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>That day, they sat at the foot of the beech tree.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>For the Turks, the <\/p>\n<p>beech was much more than just a tree; it was a prayer planted in the earth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Ba\u015fkam touched the tree\u2019s trunk:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\u201cFor the <\/p>\n<p>spirit to rise to the heavens, the feet must take root in the earth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\u201cThat is why the <\/p>\n<p>beech grows in seven layers: six for the earth, one for the heavens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>You, too, will not gaze upon a single heaven until you have learned the seven realms.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Simana now sensed the plants\u2019 intentions before their scent or texture.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Some plants soothe fear; others multiply hope.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Some soothe pain; others purify the soul&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>But there was one sentence that Ba\u015fkam had taught her:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cHealing isn\u2019t in the plant. It\u2019s in the intention you extend to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Those words settled within Simana like a stone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>As the <\/p>\n<p>years passed, it neither wore away nor was it forgotten&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>From <\/p>\n<p>that day on,<\/p>\n<p> she never asked a plant, \u201cWhat good are you?\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Because now she knew: healing was not in the earth; it was an echo of the human spirit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By the time Simana turned eight, Ba\u015fkam had stopped asking her questions. He no longer explained the answers; he simply<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[412],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-simanas-diaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terradisimana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terradisimana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terradisimana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terradisimana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terradisimana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/terradisimana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terradisimana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terradisimana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terradisimana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terradisimana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}