When I think of trees, I think of temples. For me trees represent temples. They provide both shade and sanctuary to all creatures. They feed the earth and give shelter to the birds. Trees are holy and vital to our well-being. Yes, I am a tree hugger. The vibrations of trees has a strong attraction for me.
For the past eight years I have sat back and watched over forty trees cut down all around us. It was devastating to see those old temples go. None of them deserved it. We were told the trees were a nuisance for they cut out light, they dropped leaves, they had nasty growing habits. So they met an untimely end by mutilation. I have never come to terms with the loss of trees. Although I have filled the garden, (although home now for sale,) with new trees. Among them, two beautiful young Weeping Willows, planted last winter. Hopefully, they will thrive at the bottom of the garden where they bother no one. Perhaps they will receive more care – new temples for a new age. I won’t be here to see them grow, I can only wish them well.
One of the most beautiful passages in literature and perhaps the most profound thoughts anyone has ever uttered about trees, comes from the pen of Hermann Hesses, whose melancholy joy and heartfelt understanding of his light and darkness strikes a cord with me.
This Ode to Trees is found in Hesse’s Wondering: Notes and Sketches, published in 1920, after caring for World War I prisoners and experiencing multiple family losses and conflicts:
For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more, I revere them when they stand alone.
They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not loose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves.
Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree.
When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disc of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured.
And every young farmboy knows that the hardest and noblest wood has the narrowest rings, that high on the mountains and in continuing danger, the most indestructible, the strongest, the ideal trees grow.
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 in the form and veins of my skin, unique in 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.
A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust – I live.
When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent.
But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the child-like hastiness of our thoughts will 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.
If trees could speak, they would say: “Please let us live!”
Reblogged this on rigzenchomo and commented:
I love trees and soon many will display their bright and varied autumn dress. Another blogger, Teacher as Transformer, shared this. Now I share it with you, quote by Herman Hesse well worth the read.
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They have no respect for trees here in this corner of Ireland either. So many ancient and beautiful ones have been smashed down in the last year it makes me want to weep. I say “smashed” to emphasize the messy job that they made of it. These weren’t skilled tree surgeons with a healing touch. It almost looked like they had used hammers to fell the trees rather than chainsaws. It wasn’t just in one place either. It was like someone had seen the first mess and it had inspired them to do the same to their own trees. I had to drive past the splintered carcasses for weeks before the remains got cleared up. I felt an almost physical pain each time. These were not trees that were in danger of falling down, and they weren’t anywhere near the foundations or windows of buildings or anything like that. I can’t see any reason for the destruction of so much beauty.
On the plus side though I did walk past a piece of land with newly planted trees this summer. However, it will take hundreds of years for them to reach the stature of those that were lost. I hope they will make it.
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yes, i so agree with you. It makes you sick to the stomach seeing such destruction. The same here, anyone can cut down a tree – just hack it down as it has no life and meant nothing to the well-being of the planet. One tree only was near a home and could have been a danger, but with a little care, the tree could have been trimmed and saved but it was hacked and actually fell into our garden.. What irony is that.. thanks for your share.. eve
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yes, i so agree with you. It makes you sick to the stomach seeing such destruction. The same here, anyone can cut down a tree – just hack it down as it has no life and meant nothing to the well-being of the planet. One tree only was near a home and could have been a danger, but with a little care, the tree could have been trimmed and saved but it was hacked and actually fell into our garden.. What irony is that.. thanks for your share.. eve
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Such a shame. 😦
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What horrific reasons to cut down trees. Just terrible. So very sad. Tress are the best of us. If we were truly intelligent we would know that and respect them. Care for them and keep them safe, but we don’t really do that for anything, do we.
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Yes, it has been an appalling time, watching all the trees go. The noise of the local roads have replaced them!. Stupid people do not know the value of trees in all their various ways.. thanks for your thoughts. EVE
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Thank you for this lovely tribute. Trees are very special to me. They are symbolized in my home’s decor, my blog title celebrates the stillness of trees, my yard and heart are full of trees of every size shape and color………..and my nickname is Tree, short for Teresa. Who could NOT love a tree? PS….Hesse will be on my Kindle soon.
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Good to find a friend in trees.. Thank you for your thoughts. Eve
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I love trees! Great post 🙂
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This is such a beautiful tribute to tress, E.D. It is heart-breaking to witness their destruction. I remember my years living in northern Wisconsin surrounded by national forests. When loggers arrived to clear cut the area, there was nothing I could do to stop it. Only my little property remained uncut, but at least the animals still had a home.
(Your yard is so lovely, and blessed with the love and care you devoted to your new trees, I trust that they will long outlive those who made the replanting necessary.)
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yes, the loss of trees was a blow. they were our boundary trees. I just want to sell and out of here.. I have replaced some and although for sale, I have a few more pines to plant… I think of the birds and animals who are now without a home.. Eve
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Reblogged this on Teacher as Transformer and commented:
This post fits with my post and press from this morning. The importance of trees and what we can learn from them seems a shared journey. When we understand trees for what they are, we can understand ourselves for who we are.
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thanks. eve
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This is a great tribute, and H. Hesse is my favorite author! 🙂 Good choice. Thanks for sharing the luvz! Cheerz, Uncle Tree
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you are welcome.. I adore trees but alas i have lived through so much pain, in seeing the hacked down… I had no idea people could be so ignorant of the need to respect trees… Eve
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Welp… Uncle Tree is here to help. I hope I can
make a difference as I continue my mission.
Nice to meet you, Eve! 🙂 Thanks for caring, truly!
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‘The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity. . . and some scare see nature at all. But to the eyes of the (wo)man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.’
William Blake
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thanks. I cannot understand the people here, so hate nature in this area.. In UK you would never be able to cut trees without a permit.. We didn’t know the French were allowed to cut trees in their hundreds without any need to ask for permission.. Well, so much for the French adventure.. merde!
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If you have the time, Eve, I think you’ll enjoy what the Mexicans are doing in regard to trees at the bottom of this page:
http://backdeserttrail.yolasite.com/we-the-people.php
Yours truly ~ Clyde
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thanks.. will take a look later… best Eve
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Bless you, oh Child Of Light
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oh a compliment – many thanks… Eve:)
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inspirational – or what ??!!
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