Trees love to do that for us

The weight of the thick peeling tree trunk holds my forehead as I lean against something stronger than my fragile view of the world. Inhaling the scent of late winter bark connects me to something primal.

Breathing in, I receive what feels like perspective. Life. Something far more interesting than my busy brain can reach on its own.

Breathing out, I release fear, grief, and confusion. Trees know how to hold what we can’t.

Soft music dances in my ear buds as I wipe tears from my cheeks. Turning to bring my back against the tree, I slowly slide to the ground and look up. Clouds lazily float overhead, unconcerned with their schedule for the day. Birds chat and leaves flutter. The knots inside my aching body ease themselves open. Trees love to do that for us.

I smile upon realizing that a week ago, I knelt to leave some of my brother’s ashes in this very spot. I grin as I look underneath me to see if I’m sitting on him. He laughs with me. My smile turns to tears. Tears that feel like love and sadness in the same breath.

Trees can hold us. They love to listen to the things we can’t tell another soul. They see us. They offer a wisdom we can’t Google our way to.

Trees show us what’s most true: life, death & shimmering forth once again.

“Wintering” by James A. Pearson

Now the leaves have fallen.
The trees have pulled their aliveness
back in from their branches,
down into their fortress trunks
and the dark, subterranean closeness
of their roots.

Every year they let go of
exactly what everyone says
is most beautiful about them
to save their own lives.

The time will come
when you, too, have to drop
all the ways you’ve made yourself worth loving,
and finally learn how
to sit quietly
right in the center
of your own small life.

Only there can you cry the tears
your life depends on.
Only there will you find
the tiny seed
that holds the whole mystery of you
and cradle it
in the warmth of your body
until the spring.

An Invitation

What about you, my dear reader?

The brilliant scientists of our day tell us that walking through a city park or hiking in the wilderness improves attention, lowers stress, improves mood, reduces risk of psychiatric disorders, and even increases empathy and cooperation.

What’s your relationship to nature in this season? Is there a tree calling your name? Maybe it’s one outside your window. Or that one near the place you work. Or maybe it’s one deep in the forest and you want to find it this weekend.

I invite you to pay your tree a visit. It seems that trees love to heal. You never know what it might gift you next.