Every year at Wilbur Hot Springs, many of you, our guests, walk out to the Nature Preserve, past the Geyser, and stop at the Wishing Tree. It’s a mid-size Live Oak that sits atop an old ruin from the mining days. You inscribe a wish or prayer on a note and tie it to the tree.
Over the course of twelve months from January 1 to December 31, more than a thousand of you place your heart-felt hopes and dreams into the arms and branches of this tree. It’s a beautiful site to witness the accumulation of little note cards throughout the year, until it’s time to cut them down and offer them into the New Year’s Eve bon fire. “Wishing for health and wellness this year”; “Let those who have passed be beacons of light for all this and more”; “May all beings be happy, may all beings be free”; “I pray for more compassion, love, kindness, forgiveness for myself”; “May I have the courage to speak my truth and step into my power”; “A lifetime of peace, love, happiness for my loved ones”. These are just a few of the thoughts that we read out loud this year as we tossed them into the fire, that the wishes may rise up and be fulfilled.
Wilbur Hot Springs has been a sacred healing ground for body and spirit since Native Americans first discovered the medicinal waters emerging from deep below the ground. We hope that this year, Wilbur can help hold your hopes and dreams, be it in the branches of the Wishing Tree, or soaking in the flumes, or in a good night’s sleep in the quiet and stillness of the natural landscape, far from the city, where the stars shine bright and the moon watches over us.