Nature is a portal to our deeper self. In this essay, I am focusing on how trees connect us with ourselves. Hearing the feelings that others have for trees inspires me, I want to highlight other authors’ perspectives on what trees bring to us.
I recommend you check out the links I have included for more wisdom from these authors. I have written about my own feelings for trees in a number of essays, I will include a few at the end of this essay. Take a long look at the photos, revealing the unique beauty of each tree.
Herman Hesse:
But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike 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.
I love that he sees deep listening to trees as connecting us further with ourselves. To me this underlines how connected we are with nature.
And this:
Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.
A tree says:
A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.
Love what the tree says, so beautiful.
All quotes and more writing from Herman Hesse https://www.anthologialitt.com/post/hermann-hesse-the-wisdom-of-trees
This one is very intriguing . . .
Tree. Living sentinels connecting us with other realms.
from the glossary of oraclegirl.org
Mary Oliver, in When I am among the trees, speaks of the solace she receives from trees:
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.
Our simple receptivity to the light of nature, to the light that flows from the branches of trees, fills us with light - and we radiate.
Jiddu Krishnamurti:
It is very important to go out alone, to sit under a tree-not with a book, not with a companion, but by yourself-and observe the falling of a leaf, hear the lapping of the water, the fishermen's song, watch the flight of a bird, and of your own thoughts as they chase each other across the space of your mind. If you are able to be alone and watch these things, then you will discover extraordinary riches which no government can tax, no human agency can corrupt, and which can never be destroyed.
What wealth we have if we can be receptive to all that surrounds us.
In a revealing essay titled “The Things Trees Know,” William Bryant Logan writes on the music of trees. If you love music, the link to this essay in which he explores the improvisational musical nature of trees is required reading.
To study how trees grow is to admire not only their persistence but also their imagination. Live wood just won’t quit. Every time you knock it down, it comes back again, but when a plant sprouts back, it is not a random shot, like some finger simply raised to make a point. Rather, the growing tip of any stem — what botanists call the meristem — answers with an inborn, complex pattern, like a musical tune.
Potentially, every tree is immortal.” — https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-music-of-trees-improvisation-iteration-and-the-science-of-immortality?utm_source=emailsynd&utm_medium=social
Here are two of my essays on trees:
I hope you have been inspired by the depth of feeling these authors have expressed for trees. Be still and sit under a tree today!
I would love to hear in the comments how trees have touched you!
If you would like to go deeper into yourself through nature, please reach out, my information is below.
THE NATURE OF US is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Free and paid subscribers receive identical content. If you want to support and encourage me a little extra, and your finances are OK, please choose paid.
Thank you for reading today!
Sabrina Page, MA in Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness
You can reach me at sabrinapage@earthlink.net. I help you focus on the deep knowing of your body, aligned with the earth and all life - embodiment - to support you in living life fully, freely, and fluidly, intertwined with nature. My background also includes having studied movement, dance, and astrology - with some of the leading individuals in their fields. Sessions are individually tailored to your current needs. My private sessions are offered on zoom, phone, or in person in Bolinas, Ca.
More information is available on my website, sabrinapage.com
Thank you for reading THE NATURE OF US. This post is public so feel free to share
Beautiful compilation, Sabrina. Your photos are stunning and perfect accompaniment to the prose.