Imagining The Tree Of Life

Carol 0:01

Close your eyes for just a moment. Stand beneath an old oak. Feel the temperature drop as its canopy shelters you from the summer sun. Listen. Birds are singing from the branches. Squirrels are darting along its trunk. Roots stretch silently beneath your feet. You're touching other roots you've never seen. The tree is standing still. Yet everything around it is alive because of it. We've called it the tree of life for thousands of years, but what if we've been looking at it backwards? What if there isn't one tree of life? What if every tree is a tree of life? That is why I believe every tree is a tree of life. Every time you breathe, you inhale the breath of a tree. Every living thing is a part of a larger, interconnected whole. Thus, I am sharing information not about the tree of life, but all trees of life. As always in my episodes, I ask what can another living being teach us about ourselves? Rabbit talk courage, butterfly talk transformation, hawk talked perspective, bear talk strength. All living beings teach us if we only listen and observe. Animals move through the forest. Trees create the forest. Everything depends on them.

Grief Held By An Oak

Carol 1:38

When my father died after being rushed to the hospital for a massive aneurysm, I recall vividly walking outside to the largest oak tree I could find. I leaned up against its trunk and realized how much I'd associated my father with its strength, courage, and yes, love. The tree felt like it was embracing me in my tremendous grief. Science can explain the mechanisms, but wonder reveals the meaning.

Sacred Trees Across Cultures

Carol 2:09

Throughout all cultures, trees are revered. An elaborate mythology of trees exists around the world. Hinduism and Buddhism revere the banyan tree. It represents eternal life and the universe. There's the sacred fig tree, which is revered as the site Sardarta Kaltama attained enlightenment. The Celtics and the Norse revere the oak and ash. Ancient Celtic druids regarded the oak as a symbol of wisdom, strength, and diversity. The word druid itself is thought to mean oak knower. The Norse celebrated the Igdussil, a massive, sacred ash tree thought to connect nine worlds of the cosmos, serving as the central axis of the universe. In Mayan culture, the Seva tree was considered the world tree. Roots represented the underworld, and the trunk represented the earthly realm, and the branches represented reaching into heaven. In China, pine, cedars, cypresses are planted near temples to represent longevity and fateful love. Hong Kong celebrates the Lom Tichuan, wishing trees, where people tie wishes to oranges and throw them into the tree branches for good luck. Judaism, parent religion to Christianity, holds the tree of knowledge and tree of life as planted in the Garden of Eden. Many religions have parallel concepts of these two trees. Then there's Africa, where the banyan tree, indigenous to Africa, Madagascar, and Australia, earned its reputation as the real world tree of life by storing thousands of gallons of water in its massive trunk, allowing it to sustain local ecosystems, wildlife, and human communities through severe droughts. It represents a connection between earthly and divine realms.

When Banyans Become A Warning

Carol 4:18

This tree was included in a book called The Little Prince, written by Antoine de Saint-Exoperie, which, by the way, I read first in French. Which moved me, especially memorable because I had to translate it myself. In this beautiful story of a little boy who tends to a very small planet, including a vain rose, who thinks she's the only rose in the universe, there is the banyan tree, which represented a destructive force, bad habits, and unchecked problems that must be dealt with before they become unmanageable. They resemble tiny rose bushes when young, but are deceptive to the little prince, who knows they can multiply and their roots can spread throughout his small planet and break it apart. The Manyans are a metaphor for the spread of Fatsiism and Nazism during World War II, illustrating how the danger of figures like Hitler went unaddressed until it was too late. The little prince commented to the pilot he met on Earth. The tree is a metaphor for resilience. It drops seeds knowing most will never become trees. Trees have movies about them. You're most likely to know the 2002 The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, where Treebeard and Aunts are ancient tree shepherds who defend the forest of Fangorn. Then there's Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, which stars Groot, a beloved, sentient, tree-like alien who demonstrates incredible loyalty and heart. A good metaphor for hope. A tree's roots disappearing into darkness while its branches reach upward seeking light.

The Wood Wide Web Explained

Carol 6:22

Later in my life, I saw the Judy Dentz documentary called My Passion for Trees, based on the pioneering scientific work of forest ecologist Suzanne Simard. It was groundbreaking work, yes, pun intended, and what is often called the wood wide web. It was revealed how trees communicate, share resources, and support one another beneath the forest floor. This vast underground network of fungi is how trees interact with each other. Samard's research proved that forests function as complex, cooperative social communities rather than just being a collection of trees competing for resources. Judy Dinch's program explores how large ancient mother trees act as hubs in the network, distributing carbon and nutrients to younger seedlings to help them survive. Judy Dinch learned about this interconnectedness of trees on her six-acre private woodland in Surrey, England across four seasons. Tree experts guided her and she discovered that forests aren't solitary. They form social interconnected communities where trees breathe, communicate, and share resources. Yes, trees breathe, drink, communicate, and remember, Ditch was able to hear rumbling sounds of her trees drinking water and transporting nutrients through their tubes with a special device from the tree guides. NASA satellite imagery showed how vital trees are as natural carbon capture machines in the fight against climate change. It was explained that the wood wide web is fungi forming massive spidery underground networks that connect the root system to different trees in the forest. This was when I learned trees have a chemical communication using pheromones and underground signals to warn each other of threats like insect attacks. So you might wonder what can trees do to lessen the attack? When a tree is under attack, neighboring trees can taste the warning, alter their own chemistry, and thus become less palatable.

Planting Trees As Living Memorials

Carol 8:46

Dinch plants trees as living memorials to mark the passing of friends and family. I felt trees were such an inspiration. I planted one for a friend outside her window. I told her as the tree grew in streaks, so could she as she battled cancer. She found the tree inspirational and surprised herself by becoming attached as she looked forward every morning to note its growth. In the end, I brought in some of its fallen, still green leaves. In her wisdom she understood we are like the leaves, an evolving change in life, a natural, expected transition into another form. She smiled and wondered where her transformation would take her. Every autumn, trees release their leaves to make room for winter rest and spring's new growth. Trees teach us to let go, letting go of habits, mistakes, or circumstances that no longer serve us. Trees are patient and always present. They do not rush. They grow at their own steady pace and accept each season exactly as it shows up. They remind us to slow down, be present, and trust the process of gradual unfolding. Trees remind us we are all interconnected, all tied to nature, the universe, and our shared web of existence. Think of your own family and your lineage. It's referred to as your family tree. It honors your ancestors while symbolizing how deep roots support future generations. Just understand that every breath we take is a conversation with a tree. Ralph Waldo Emerson's most famous acorn quote is the creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn. This is also a profound metaphor for all of history and all of our potential beginnings with the seed of one individual and the seed of one idea. Emerson wrote an essay with the topic, Is the acorn better than the oak? Which is its fullness and completion? He challenges the worship of the past, inferring that what is yet to be, meaning the oak, is just as significant as or superior to its humble beginnings, the acorn.

Resilience, Letting Go, Interdependence

Carol 11:14

What have we learned from trees we can use or apply? Forests are communities. Ecologists have shown trees act as a community, teaching the value of mutual support. That's right, trees grow side by side without choking each other. Some communities are beginning to recognize trees as living beings deserving greater protection. Storms will come, but we should bend and stand, not be inflexible and break if you want to survive. Trees have scars from adjusting to their injuries, as we all know too well for ourselves. Trees tend to look lifeless after summer's heat, as they willingly drop their leaves in this season yearly. I really don't think anyone should be judged by their hardest season in life. The shedding of leaves conserves energy and makes room for growth. This is having the wisdom of letting go, which teaches us all the wisdom of releasing what no longer serves us. The oldest trees nurture the youngest. This is where parents, grandparents, have a huge impact in your life, helping you thrive mentally, emotionally, through their care and love. We are partners with trees. We are interdependent because the trees breathe out the oxygen we breathe in, and we breathe out the carbon dioxide they need. Every breath is a silent prayer of gratitude for the trees keeping us alive. Trees demonstrate generosity with their unselfish giving when they provide shade, oxygen, and substance to all creatures unconditionally. Maybe we spend too much time thinking of ourselves as being apart from, separate from nature. Every breath you take should remind you otherwise. Our lungs are filled by oxygen released by the leaves. When we exhale the carbon dioxide, we help tomorrow's leaves. We're not just visitors on this planet. We are participating in this living world every single day. Trees have always known this. Perhaps it's time we remembered.

Poetry, Forest Bathing, Final Reflection

Carol 13:30

There was a man named Joyce Kilmer, and in 1917 he enlisted with the New York National Guard when the United States entered World War I. He was a journalist and a poet who celebrated the common beauty of the natural world with his poetry. However, for all the numerous poetry he wrote, he is most remembered for a short poem titled Trees. It was published in 1914. Kilmer, serving as a sergeant in the U.S. Army's famous fighting 69th Infantry, was killed in action july 30, 1918 by a German sniper at age 31 while on a daring reconnaissance mission. The poem begins with I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree, but its ending last two sentences may be the most moving. Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree. This emphasizes the limits of human creativity compared to the divine perfection of divine craftsmanship. Kilmer personifies the tree as a spiritual being in touch with the divine, and the poem celebrates nature as the supreme reflection of God's work. I'm a tree hugger, I admit it. I have sensed from my early tree climbing days the strength and safeness one backyard tree gave me. Now it's been validated in Japan and numerous other studies where they had practiced forest bathing for decades, that forests can reduce stress hormones, lower blood pressure, improve mood, and even increase certain immune cells for a period afterward. So whether you actually hug a tree or walk the forest, it is the immersion within, about, around, and through, which will gift you in ways that will enhance your life. Perhaps the greatest lesson trees teach us is that nothing truly thrives alone. Trees connect all of us. I'm Carol Butler, thanks for listening. Hope you'll download episodes, follow me, and share. Join me next week when we'll explore how Turtle teaches the importance of Earth and being grounded in so much more. My intent is always to have you listen, reflect, connect. Resilience isn't standing alone, it's staying connected. This is what connection sounds like.