The Aspens’ Ascension: A Birthday Reflection on the True Meaning of Ascension

How a Happy Typo Became a Message from the Trees

Three days before my 59th birthday, I decided to celebrate in my own way — not with a party, but with presence. The dogs and I drove up to Flagstaff to walk the Aspen Loop Trail, one of the things I’d promised myself I would do after moving to Arizona.

It was the perfect day — clear, crisp, and golden. The air shimmered with sunlight and laughter. People on the trail smiled at each other for no reason at all, as if we were all tuned to the same quiet magic that lives in the mountains. The dogs trotted beside me, tails high, and I felt it — that deep sense of being exactly where I was meant to be.

When we returned to the car, I found a surprise waiting. I had left the sunroof open, and the wind had filled the front and back seats with Aspen leaves — a handful of tiny golden messengers. They looked like blessings scattered by the forest itself. I didn’t brush them away. I just sat for a while, soaking in the beauty, feeling wrapped in something sacred and light.

True Ascension Meaning

A little surprise

Later, when I posted the photos, a friend commented: “The ascension are gorgeous.” It was a simple autocorrect — “Aspens” had turned into “ascension.” But we both laughed and agreed that maybe it wasn’t an accident at all. The Aspens truly are ascended beings — connected by one vast root system beneath the earth, shimmering together as one soul expressed in many forms.

The Aspens feel like ascended beings because they embody the true meaning of ascension: not an escape from the world, but a deeper participation in it.

Beneath the surface, every Aspen in a grove is part of one vast living organism -- a shared root system that connects them as one living soul. They rise individually, but they breathe, communicate, and even heal together.

In that way, they model unity consciousness — the kind of awareness that remembers its connection to all life. Their shimmering leaves catch the light and send it rippling through the forest like laughter, as if they’re transmitting love itself. They don’t reach upward to flee the earth; they rise because they are so deeply rooted within it.

Roots run deep, far, and wide. The Aspen Loop Trail in Flagstaff

That’s the meaning of true ascension — we don’t transcend by leaving the ground, but by grounding in love so completely that heaven can meet us here. The Aspens remind me that evolution is not a ladder but a circle — an ongoing conversation between light and root, sky and soil, spirit and form.

So when my friend called them “ascended beings,” I felt a knowing in my chest. Yes. That’s what they are — and what we are becoming too, when we remember how to live connected, radiant, and free.

This year, even though I celebrated my birthday alone, I didn’t feel alone at all. My friends were everywhere — two on four legs beside me, and countless others standing tall in gold, whispering in the wind.

Bear Enjoying the Leaves

Kahlo (named after Frida) is enjoying the trail

Sometimes the universe speaks through typos. Sometimes it answers with leaves. And sometimes, when your heart is open, even the forest celebrates your birthday with you. 🌳💛

✨ From My Heart to Yours

May you find your own places of golden light — where nature, spirit, and self move as one.

With love and luminous roots,

Julie

Visit www.juliestarrparker.com to explore upcoming writings and intuitive offerings.