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Daily Question, January 25

How do I love trees? Let me count the ways….

  • Mary Agnes Leonard

    Trees are our angels
    and our ancestors
    with bark.

  • Amor fati

    It’s obvious from all the love letters below that we are a well-rooted group. Thank you all for allowing me to feel even more connected and safe within this fellowship.

  • Anita

    As a tree lover, tree hugger, planter of trees, photographer of trees, where do I begin? Under the Willow tree was the first place I felt safe. A place where I could be alone with thoughts, dreams and play! I sled here in the Winter and dreamed in the Spring and Summer! Very grateful for all types of trees.I believe we need to have stronger ‘greenspace’ laws in the USA. I believe all people need to have native trees in their yard – giving more oxygen to the environment. Very grateful for trees.

  • Susan

    There is a tree outside my dining room and living room. I have positioned my chair at the table so that I face the tree, through these windows. This tree uplifts me and calms me. One of the reasons I bought this house was because of this beautiful and strong tree. It is a ‘Live Oak’ tree, which means, it does not shed its leaves in the fall, so it is green all year round. I love this tree.

  • Anna

    Just today I read the Gospel of Marc, 26-34.The story of a little seed that becomes a tall and flourishing trees is extraordinary, little like every little daily adventures of our lives.
    extraordinary because this seed stays patiently in the darkness, it does not take darkness aside until at a certain moment, it surrends to the light and let the life flow into itself. This reminds me the power of vulnerability.
    Years after, when the seed is a tree, I think of the roots as the deep awareness ...

    Just today I read the Gospel of Marc, 26-34.The story of a little seed that becomes a tall and flourishing trees is extraordinary, little like every little daily adventures of our lives.
    extraordinary because this seed stays patiently in the darkness, it does not take darkness aside until at a certain moment, it surrends to the light and let the life flow into itself. This reminds me the power of vulnerability.
    Years after, when the seed is a tree, I think of the roots as the deep awareness of our past, and of the branches and leaves as the will to live, and the openness to what can happen. This evening I have enjoyed this nice moment, reading your nice stories and reflections about trees.

    Read More
  • Sylvie

    What comes to my mind first , is a tree from my childhood that stood a bit up the hill from my parents house. When my brother and me did s.th. tricky, like pour a glas of cold water down the neck of our grandma, we would run away and climb on the tree. There we could overlook the whole village and waited until s.b. showed up at our house, to then come home.and have only a very mild complaint.

  • Pilgrim

    Trees have been source and solace for me all my life, giving shelter and wonder, inviting questions and bracing me in my tears. When I am with/within the trees, I feel like I can breathe (other times, less so) and am somehow known in my depths.

  • Eva Liu

    giving life. sharing joy. teaching me how to just be… there are too many reasons to list.

  • Hot Sauce

    I love trees by virtue of the mystery and wonder they bring to the world. How is it that trees live and grow cells, using DNA to form their structures and building themselves from the surrounding environment? This is still a mystery to biologists. I am also amazed at trees' ability to communicate with each other! Cutting down one tree affects the way other trees adapt to their environment. In the past, biologists thought this was because of chemical signals, but recent study has shown that trees...

    I love trees by virtue of the mystery and wonder they bring to the world. How is it that trees live and grow cells, using DNA to form their structures and building themselves from the surrounding environment? This is still a mystery to biologists. I am also amazed at trees’ ability to communicate with each other! Cutting down one tree affects the way other trees adapt to their environment. In the past, biologists thought this was because of chemical signals, but recent study has shown that trees send a kind of “W-wave” to alert other trees when they are being cut down. Interestingly, however, if one communicates with the trees and there is a good reason for cutting them down, the level of alarm in the forest seems to go down as well. Furthermore, I am grateful for all the wonderful blessings trees give us: houses, school buildings, medicine, and food. Trees are the greatest friends of all life, and it is our responsibility to protect and sustain them wisely.

    Read More
  • Javier Visionquest

    For a man who has lost his teeth there are dentures and bridges; for a man who has lost an arm or leg there are various prosthetics available. Technology has even replaced the functions of certain vital organs within the human physiology; but when it comes to trees there is no replacement. It is as if trees are more integral to human being than the physical parts of one’s own body.

    • Aine

      Also, the replacement body parts were once made of wood!

    • Anna

      Very very interesting reflection Javier!

      • Javier Visionquest

        Trees breathe in carbon dioxide, break off and store the carbon atom and release the oxygen atoms (o2) that we breathe in. Photosynthetic plants are our complementary partners in the carbon cycle.

  • Michael

    The actual benefits of course bring us life in many ways!! The metaphors they provide as examples of persistence and collective strength. The example of the Chinese bamboo taking 5 years to break through the soil n then growing up to 90 feet in 6 weeks is an amazing reality we all can learn from.

  • Michael

    The trees, their roots, the earth and nutrients, the air, the sky, the branches and leaves, all reminders of our interconnection. We are not born onto, but out of this earth.

  • Francine Marie Tolf

    Cottonwoods

    You know from their deeply grooved bark
    they hold marvelous stories.
    They are taller than oak trees
    and sway and glitter through summer
    like massive angels,
    nearly brushing the clouds.
    Can we doubt they are good?
    Yet a neighbor used to say
    with distinct disapproval
    that “they’ll grow anywhere.”

    Before this day ends, in some marketplace
    where melons are stacked and ancients hum,
    someone will toss a grenade.
    A six-year-old who hates no one
    will be diagnosed wi...

    Cottonwoods

    You know from their deeply grooved bark
    they hold marvelous stories.
    They are taller than oak trees
    and sway and glitter through summer
    like massive angels,
    nearly brushing the clouds.
    Can we doubt they are good?
    Yet a neighbor used to say
    with distinct disapproval
    that “they’ll grow anywhere.”

    Before this day ends, in some marketplace
    where melons are stacked and ancients hum,
    someone will toss a grenade.
    A six-year-old who hates no one
    will be diagnosed with leukemia.
    A scrap of sapling will cling harder
    to its patch of sandy earth, eager to bear
    delicately scalloped leaves
    shaped like what humans call hearts –

    perfect to hold light
    and give it back.

    Read More
  • Ose

    Through this question, I am gratefully reminded that during childhood, I was sitting in a huge red beech often, its branches providing a safe place, its soft rustling speaking to me, the tall tree gently allowing me to have a wide view around. I loved to be there, feeling it´s strong arms which were holding me safe.
    Inspired by today´s question, I was especially with the trees around, a very old yew tree and a lot of beautiful pines here in the mountains. One of them I carefully touched, and...

    Through this question, I am gratefully reminded that during childhood, I was sitting in a huge red beech often, its branches providing a safe place, its soft rustling speaking to me, the tall tree gently allowing me to have a wide view around. I loved to be there, feeling it´s strong arms which were holding me safe.
    Inspired by today´s question, I was especially with the trees around, a very old yew tree and a lot of beautiful pines here in the mountains. One of them I carefully touched, and it was as if the pine would reply to me, that it reliably takes care of the ground and provides the essential air which we breathe.
    I feel deeply humble and grateful for their being with us.

    Read More
    • Aine

      Ose, for me there was a Swamp maple in the front yard and a Blue Spruce to hide under, and a huge oak towered over my bedroom.

  • Springerlady

    Forest bathing... a pleasure I do not do often enough! Just to think about walking among the trees can bring me peace and pleasure: to drink in the variety, the beauty, the serenity... to see the knots and gnarls in the trunks and know they are not too much different from the knots and bumps in my own life of growing! There is a tree close to where I live now - that I sometimes just stand by, touch - and feel grounded. We are moving soon and I will miss "my tree".... and wonder where I w...

    Forest bathing… a pleasure I do not do often enough! Just to think about walking among the trees can bring me peace and pleasure: to drink in the variety, the beauty, the serenity… to see the knots and gnarls in the trunks and know they are not too much different from the knots and bumps in my own life of growing! There is a tree close to where I live now – that I sometimes just stand by, touch – and feel grounded. We are moving soon and I will miss “my tree”…. and wonder where I will find the next root of comfort and solace? There are also three large pines that stand in a field and they bring me pleasure just by their arrangement. They make me think of “3 Pines” the fictitious place in the novels by Louise Penny …. Now I want to go sit under a tree and read!

    Read More
    • Aine

      We are looking to move soon, too, and I also think of leaving “my” trees here. Who will be my tree friend there?

      Even in this, trees give us a helpful loving answer. Just as they were here long before we knew them, so, too, others of their forest kin will be waiting to receive us, journey with us awhile as these have done, and be to us what we need wherever we are. ❤️

  • GT

    I love trees for their spreading branches that provide shade at noon in the summer.

  • kathleen

    This is a timely question for me! I love trees. I would like to take pictures of all my favorite ones and have a wall of these framed pictures. I love how a row of trees looks showing the symmetry of branch structure repeated. Apart from the visual beauty they add so much to our world. I remember one of my favorite songs growing up. “I think that I shall never see a poem so lovely as a tree… “

  • Aine

    There is a large old maple outside my window with huge thick branches flung wide, outstretched as if to hug me. In leaf, the movement of a breeze through the leaves cause ripples of color and sunlight, like a kaleidoscope.

    Next to it stands a Norway Spruce that is probably over one hundred and sixty years old. It is the tallest tree on the property, standing straight and perfect of trunk with branches bending gracefully towards earth. At times, those branches are loaded with cones like ornam...

    There is a large old maple outside my window with huge thick branches flung wide, outstretched as if to hug me. In leaf, the movement of a breeze through the leaves cause ripples of color and sunlight, like a kaleidoscope.

    Next to it stands a Norway Spruce that is probably over one hundred and sixty years old. It is the tallest tree on the property, standing straight and perfect of trunk with branches bending gracefully towards earth. At times, those branches are loaded with cones like ornaments.

    I love to look out on these venerable friends and connect with their ability to weather storms. They have seen far more fierce storms than I have, yet still they stand, whole and strong.

    I marvel at the different smells of trees, how each is distinctive — the sweetness of some, freshness of others, in some even an earthy quality.

    I’ve already gone a bit long, and I could go longer still! Trees are one of the magical gifts with whom we share this world!

    Read More
  • Chester

    Through the example of growing in depth and within the darkness, while simultaneously growing and expanding into the light.

  • Rich

    I had not really considered how a tree might relate to me before today, but having read the comments of others I can see I was missing out on a great reminder on how to live. Grounded, flexible and always growing until the day they return to the earth. Thank you everyone for the insight.

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