Tree hugger has been used as a derogatory term by corporations that have been frustrated by environmentalists. But if you click this link, you'll find an interesting story about the original tree huggers, who were/are indigenous people on the other side of the globe trying to protect nature (rather than white North American hippies or celebrities). It also explains how the idea of tree huggers arrived in North America in the 1960s.
Lately I've been moodling in my mind not so much about tree hugger activists as I have been about simply appreciating trees. When my family moved to Edmonton, our home had a huge May Day chokecherry tree in the back yard, and how I loved it. I could climb high enough in its branches to see over our house, and I spent many hours in it, playing with my sisters or reading books. Unfortunately, it developed a split in the trunk and eventually was cut down out of safety concerns around the time that my parents renovated their home in the mid-80s.
To be honest, since that tree disappeared, I hadn't given much thought to the trees around me. But since a visit to T'l'oqwxwat, also known as Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew in BC two years ago, I've been much more aware of all my relations, and especially the "Standing People" around me. Often when I take Shadow-dog for walks, we head for the trees along our river valley.
So today's suggestion/poem is designed to invite us all to appreciate the canopy of pale green in the urban or rural groves now unfolding their leaves all around us. Humour me, and when the weather is fine, hug a tree...
How to properly hug a tree
Choose
a bare tree trunk
about as wide as you are --
in a place away from the eyes of others.
Take
the tree between your hands.
Look
deeply into its bark
and see
its wrinkles and imperfections;
look up
and see
its perfection as a tree.
Lean
into it,
press your cheek against it
and wrap your arms around it.
Hug
it gently,
feeling your muscles
tighten in embrace.
Think
about the life blood
flowing through your body
and the sap
flowing beneath the bark.
Envision
the connection
between blood and sap --
the Creator of both.
Imagine
the roots
below your feet
drawing goodness from the soil
and exchanging nutrients
with nearby plants.
Close
your eyes
and inhale deeply
of the oxygen
the leaves freely offer
in exchange
for your breath.
Open
your eyes
and let them settle
on restful green
with blue space between,
focusing on the way
leaves and branches move.
Appreciate
the solidity,
the structure,
the strength
of the one
you hold in your arms.
Dream
its planting,
its growing,
the birds that have nested in its branches,
the fledglings that have left it behind,
the creatures that have sheltered in its shade.
Know
it as a vital partner
to your very existence
to the web of life that surrounds you.
And when
you have held it long enough,
Sit
with your back against your well-hugged tree.
Give
gratitude for it,
for its place in the universe,
its Creator,
and for your ability to
Recognize
all that is good.
