Celebrate Trees

So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts: Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.  - Hermann Hesse

I have always felt a tree connection. Growing up with gingkoes, magnolias, pines, oaks, and a variety of fruit trees, I sought solace among them. An affinity grew. When I wanted to run away, the olive trees hosted my safe departure. Under their protection, I studied French verbs. I hugged my trees, climbed branch upon branch to revel in the perceptions, gained from the top's view. Once I fell out of a magnolia on my head. Gravity did it, not the tree.

A study by the University of Exeter's medical school has found that individuals living in polluted urban areas have fewer admissions to the hospital with asthma when lots of trees populate their neighborhood.

Published in the journal, Environment International, the study looked into the impact of urban greenery on asthma. The study viewed more than 650,000 serious asthma attacks over a 15 year period.

It suggests that respiratory health improves by the expansion of tree cover in polluted urban neighborhoods.  

Trees never leave us. They transform and provide gifts to everyone who uses a desk, cabinets, and wooden toys. We feel protected within the structure of buildings that include wood. 

Even during their winter months, trees hold nests for the birds' next season. 

Jacques Goldstyn wrote, Bertolt, about a boy whose best friend is an oak tree named Bertolt. Daily refuge in his tree provides real and metaphorical ways to observe the world. Bertolt gives caring and solace through his structure; host to the boy's imaginative adventures. 

In spring, when Bertolt's leaves shine, animals make homes in its nooks and branches, the boy observes everyday happenings around and below him. Each year he says goodbye to Bertolt for the winter season.  

After the last frost when other trees begin to bloom, the boy notices Bertolt's branches remain bare.  When he realizes his tree has died, he honors his friend's life and generosity, revealing to readers the mutuality of this true friendship.  

The book features the imagination and ways we nurture ourselves in becoming who we are. It also reveals mortality and loss, sorrow and acceptance.

Hug a tree and climb one today.