In her diary for December 1, 1151, the German mystic, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), noted that an ancient tree outside her casement window suddenly "began physically to move in the quiet light of midday. It's motion," she wrote, "seemed such that I and everything I knew or could imagine was present in that tree and shared the same fluid, energetic breathing. The privileged glimpse was gone in a moment, though I have no doubt the joyous movement continues still. I crave its beauty like food...."
--Barbara Lachman, The Journal of Hildegard of Bingen (New York: Bell Tower, 1993), p.2.
