Tree People

Here we are, just like that in 2012.  I am behind on this blog because of many things (read holidays, getting a cold from hell, family and friends), but there has been a lot “cooking”.  One of my main intentions for this year is to plant trees, conserve trees, learn about trees, talk about trees and to document heritage trees. I got a book I wanted for Christmas: Like A Tree by Jean Shinoda Bolen. http://www.jeanbolen.com/ Here is a quote from the first page.

“The seed idea for this book began with the observation that there are “tree
people”, and that I am one of them. A tree person has positive feelings for
individual trees and an appreciation of trees . . . A tree person may have
been a child who kept treasures in a tree, or had a sanctuary in one, or
climbed up to see the wider worlds, a child for whom trees were places of
imaginative play and retreat . . .  A tree person met up with Nature in
childhood or as an adult, and like the four-footed ones who retreat to lick
their wounds, may still heal emotional hurts by going to where trees are."

Knowing something is good. Naming it gives it power. I am a tree person. I had so many experiences like the Bolen's story:

“A huge Monterey pine (once) stood in front of the house that is now my home
. . .  It never occurred to me that by a vote of a homeowners association
this beautiful tree that was there before any houses went up and was in its
prime could be cut down because a neighbor wanted it down and could mobilize
the necessary votes. In trying to save my tree, I was in many conversations
and meetings, and found that there is a world of difference between tree
people and "not tree people.”

“I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree.”
Joyce Kilmer

“You see one tree, you¹ve seen them all.”
Attributed to Ronald Reagan

“It's the little things citizens do. That's what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees." Wangari Maathai

More on Wangari next time.