What do you hear when you look at a tree?

When we were in Gatlinburg Tn, we got this face for my Mom and Dad’s tree.  The face is still there.  From where I sat it looked like the leaves of the tree appeared to be hair for this face.  I started thinking about trees.  When I was young I used to collect leaves and other plants to identify them.  My father helped me to know which tree was what.  He also knew the bark.  One time his sister asked him to come up and see if her trees had Dutch Elm disease.  He drove up and got out of the car and looked at the trees and said “No.  These are Oak trees”.  He got back into the car and his sister said “For heaven’s sake, come on in.  You came all this way.”  He had completed his mission and the trees weren’t elms.  He could see by their bark.  The trees spoke to him.

For some people trees are silent.  For some people nature speaks in whispers.  For some nature speaks in a loud voice. I love the sound of the wind going through the trees.  The sound of water running is soothing and so is the sound the wind in the trees.  We have a maple tree in our front yard.  One fall there came a heavy frost.  The leaves were frozen and they made such a different sound.  I had never heard leaves fall before.  I had seen them and might have heard a little sound when they hit the ground but this time because the leaves were frozen they kind of “clinked” as they fell.  I watched for a long time just marveling at the sounds and sights.

We see trees often.  Do we hear them speak?  I love the Sequoia trees.  They are in groves and their roots are shallow for the size of the trees.  However, their roots are intertwined and they help hold each other up.  For me that is how we should live in community – holding each other up – caring for each other.  The strength isn’t found in one tree but in the community of trees in the grove.   Trees speak.  The rings in the trees can tell you if the seasons were dry or wet.  They can tell what was going on around them at the time.

Take some time and hug a tree. Take some time and sit with a tree.  See what the tree speaks to you.  Listen with your heart and maybe your head.  Listening to the trees will help us know what is going on in the world.  Only as we hold each other up and are rooted in the world will we care more for how we treat the world and the trees.  Listen.  The trees speak.  If you can hear them, then speak for them to those that can’t hear what they say.