trees...I like thinking about trees. They are amazing beings. Imagine a life spent standing in one place for a hundred, two hundred, even a thousand years. Growing taller, bigger, reaching for the sun; taking little molecules like C02 and turning them into long, straight timber-like trunks and branches, transpiring water into the air, hu…
trees...I like thinking about trees. They are amazing beings. Imagine a life spent standing in one place for a hundred, two hundred, even a thousand years. Growing taller, bigger, reaching for the sun; taking little molecules like C02 and turning them into long, straight timber-like trunks and branches, transpiring water into the air, humidifying and cooling, producing leaves or needles that build soil around them year after year, decade after decade, century after century.
Imagine if they had voices; what kind of stories would they tell. What would they witness, under their branches? What kind of view? Swaying in heavy wind, drinking in sunshine, weighed down by ice and snow. Standing shoulder to shoulder with others, witnessing seasons come and go, providing shelter to all manner of life without fail. Even in death, they give more life for half a century or more on the forest floor.
There's no guile in a tree. No deceit, no trickery. They stand for what's real, what's durable, what's reliable. They indicate where life can take hold and thrive. They create and support diversity. They create shelter, calm. Where there are trees, there is an abundance of life. I have some favorites on my land, but every one of them is remarkable, smaller and larger. It's always better where there are trees.
We are….because trees and plants are. They came first and gave us food and oxygen. We are all connected. Even turtles. Love and gratitude from downstream in Scarborough Heather.💖
I loved, loved, loved, your post. Thank you for sharing it. I find trees to be, among many other things, incredibly sweet. There are people who talk to trees and get answers back, just like there are animal whisperers. Or so I've been told.
Your observation about trees is just lovely, and expresses much of the same wonderment I have experienced when walking a wooded trail. I need to get back to visit a few trees I haven't seen for a while to say hello again, and hold my hand to their trunk in appreciation. 😊
I was having exactly the same thought, Natalie, as I read the lovely words JS wrote about trees. Next time I'm in NJ, I will do exactly that, hug that beautiful Japanese Maple into which, as a child, I used to retreat with a book (lying on a branch under the protective canopy) when the world was simply too much to bear. It's been 8 years since I've seen that tree. Hoping it's still there.
Oh Carol, how lovely to have those memories with a beautiful Japanese maple - they are gorgeous. The tree I'm going to go see is one on a trail next to where my now 16-yr old went to elementary school - a already-100-yr old live oak with a beautiful canopy and covered in resurrection ferns. 😊 There are many other beautiful trees I would walk past on that trail with my now rainbow-bridge dog Maggie, but 'Tree' was always special to me and I would always say hello to them. Like you, hoping Tree is still there and one of the storms we get here didn't cause the conditions for it to get knocked down.
The vast majority of the earth's biomass is plants. The "communication" and "cooperation" between living things that have no brains is purely bio-chemical. The amazing thing to me is how efficient brains are. The little gnat buzzing around my computer (about this large: #) knows what it is doing, yet it's brain is miniscule. Fast forward to humans: we have brains that are among the best on this planet, yet there are still those among us who can't recognize the threat that Trump poses to our safety. A gnat can.
I'm sure you could also write lovingly about deserts, our blue and white thinly atmosphered planet is our "one and only" "everyone anyone anywhere has known", as Carl Sagan was wont to say.
I'm not really much of a nature person - I'm too afraid of running into bugs! But you reminded me that one day, many years ago, on a walk in the Cornell arboretum, I felt drawn into a semi-circle of trees, and as I stood in that space, I felt as though I were being gently hugged. It was a very difficult time. My now-ex and I had moved up to Ithaca from Long Island and I was very homesick. But in that moment, I felt comforted and, indeed, loved. It was a grove of White Pine, and I read that some Native Americans named it "the Mother Tree." More recently, I read that White Pine is a symbol of "The Great Peace" among a number of Native American tribes. Since that moment, whenever I see a White Pine, I relive that experience with a "thank you" to Mother Nature.
Just Sayin', I am reading an excellent book called The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing. The main theme is restoring a garden in Sussex, England, done originally by a well-known landscaper. It is about much more and references literature, English history, slavery, and the current state of the planet among other things.
Thanks for the ode to trees. Beautifully stated. Our home abuts a forest, and the developers left a large Douglas fir in the back. Her newly forming cones drip sap on our deck, she sheds mature cones and branchlets on the entire yard, and the ice-denuded side has regrown branches. She is adored by the madrona which hugs her and the cedars she buffers. She calms me, amazes me and I gladly deal with her “fallout”, even transplanting some of her babies.
No guile, no judgment, no hatred, no lies. Just a calm, enduring presence.
Thank you for talking about trees. I looked at the comments to see if anyone had opinions regarding the latest attempt on Trump’s life. Instead, you are responding to trees. Much better.
Thanks for that, JS. Trees have been helping me, too. The degree of stress I've experienced due to the prospect of leaving a fascist dictatorship for my children and all the people I love has gotten crushing. I talk to the trees in my yard and walk places every day to look at more.
trees...I like thinking about trees. They are amazing beings. Imagine a life spent standing in one place for a hundred, two hundred, even a thousand years. Growing taller, bigger, reaching for the sun; taking little molecules like C02 and turning them into long, straight timber-like trunks and branches, transpiring water into the air, humidifying and cooling, producing leaves or needles that build soil around them year after year, decade after decade, century after century.
Imagine if they had voices; what kind of stories would they tell. What would they witness, under their branches? What kind of view? Swaying in heavy wind, drinking in sunshine, weighed down by ice and snow. Standing shoulder to shoulder with others, witnessing seasons come and go, providing shelter to all manner of life without fail. Even in death, they give more life for half a century or more on the forest floor.
There's no guile in a tree. No deceit, no trickery. They stand for what's real, what's durable, what's reliable. They indicate where life can take hold and thrive. They create and support diversity. They create shelter, calm. Where there are trees, there is an abundance of life. I have some favorites on my land, but every one of them is remarkable, smaller and larger. It's always better where there are trees.
We are….because trees and plants are. They came first and gave us food and oxygen. We are all connected. Even turtles. Love and gratitude from downstream in Scarborough Heather.💖
What a lovely tribute to one of nature's finest, JS. As good, if not better than Joyce Kilmer!
I loved, loved, loved, your post. Thank you for sharing it. I find trees to be, among many other things, incredibly sweet. There are people who talk to trees and get answers back, just like there are animal whisperers. Or so I've been told.
Your observation about trees is just lovely, and expresses much of the same wonderment I have experienced when walking a wooded trail. I need to get back to visit a few trees I haven't seen for a while to say hello again, and hold my hand to their trunk in appreciation. 😊
I was having exactly the same thought, Natalie, as I read the lovely words JS wrote about trees. Next time I'm in NJ, I will do exactly that, hug that beautiful Japanese Maple into which, as a child, I used to retreat with a book (lying on a branch under the protective canopy) when the world was simply too much to bear. It's been 8 years since I've seen that tree. Hoping it's still there.
Oh Carol, how lovely to have those memories with a beautiful Japanese maple - they are gorgeous. The tree I'm going to go see is one on a trail next to where my now 16-yr old went to elementary school - a already-100-yr old live oak with a beautiful canopy and covered in resurrection ferns. 😊 There are many other beautiful trees I would walk past on that trail with my now rainbow-bridge dog Maggie, but 'Tree' was always special to me and I would always say hello to them. Like you, hoping Tree is still there and one of the storms we get here didn't cause the conditions for it to get knocked down.
Good luck, Natalie! I hope it's still there. : )
“Trees are "social creatures" that communicate with each other in cooperative ways that hold lessons for humans, too, ecologist Suzanne Simard says.”
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/05/04/993430007/trees-talk-to-each-other-mother-tree-ecologist-hears-lessons-for-people-too
The vast majority of the earth's biomass is plants. The "communication" and "cooperation" between living things that have no brains is purely bio-chemical. The amazing thing to me is how efficient brains are. The little gnat buzzing around my computer (about this large: #) knows what it is doing, yet it's brain is miniscule. Fast forward to humans: we have brains that are among the best on this planet, yet there are still those among us who can't recognize the threat that Trump poses to our safety. A gnat can.
I'm sure you could also write lovingly about deserts, our blue and white thinly atmosphered planet is our "one and only" "everyone anyone anywhere has known", as Carl Sagan was wont to say.
I'm not really much of a nature person - I'm too afraid of running into bugs! But you reminded me that one day, many years ago, on a walk in the Cornell arboretum, I felt drawn into a semi-circle of trees, and as I stood in that space, I felt as though I were being gently hugged. It was a very difficult time. My now-ex and I had moved up to Ithaca from Long Island and I was very homesick. But in that moment, I felt comforted and, indeed, loved. It was a grove of White Pine, and I read that some Native Americans named it "the Mother Tree." More recently, I read that White Pine is a symbol of "The Great Peace" among a number of Native American tribes. Since that moment, whenever I see a White Pine, I relive that experience with a "thank you" to Mother Nature.
Describing trees or Heather?
They ‘walk’ the walk. No need for talk. Yet stand for everything we need. How lovely, Just Sayin’. 🫶
THIS is why I've always been a tree hugger. Thank you very much, Just Sayin'.
Ditto Mim; guilty also.
Just Sayin', I am reading an excellent book called The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing. The main theme is restoring a garden in Sussex, England, done originally by a well-known landscaper. It is about much more and references literature, English history, slavery, and the current state of the planet among other things.
Thanks for the ode to trees. Beautifully stated. Our home abuts a forest, and the developers left a large Douglas fir in the back. Her newly forming cones drip sap on our deck, she sheds mature cones and branchlets on the entire yard, and the ice-denuded side has regrown branches. She is adored by the madrona which hugs her and the cedars she buffers. She calms me, amazes me and I gladly deal with her “fallout”, even transplanting some of her babies.
No guile, no judgment, no hatred, no lies. Just a calm, enduring presence.
Thank you! The squirell's on my oak tree, however, are full of guile, and have great aim.
Thank you for talking about trees. I looked at the comments to see if anyone had opinions regarding the latest attempt on Trump’s life. Instead, you are responding to trees. Much better.
Thanks for that, JS. Trees have been helping me, too. The degree of stress I've experienced due to the prospect of leaving a fascist dictatorship for my children and all the people I love has gotten crushing. I talk to the trees in my yard and walk places every day to look at more.
Aw dang…this makes me want to pull my copy of Katie Holten’s “The Language of Trees” off my to-be-read shelf.