Do Trees Sense, Feel, Relax, Sleep? Oh, we have stories.

Chapter 14 of our Nanticoke River Watershed Conservancy’s Community Read, from Divining, A Memoir In Trees we though hit the most appropriate/ ironic timing from last chapter when we had the topic of the Beech tree (Scroll down to May 5th’s post found here). Those of you that keep in touch with the NRWC will know why.

https://planetdetroit.org/2023/04/royal-oak-authors-new-book-for-tree-lovers-is-rooted-in-memory/

However, as we move slowly through and up to Chapter 14 (only two more left!) – moving at the speed we wish we could all the time matching with what trees see and feel day in and day out, we are amazed again.

Despite taking place in Colorado for this chapter, it did not fall on unnoticed eyes that the things we take for granted in our busy lives, rushing from here to there, often are the aspects of life we should stop and cherish more. Oh to be a tree. To be able to contemplate and slow down the events of our lives in much fuller perspectives than we allow ourselves time for. Believe it or not, slowing all down changes us as well as changes our lives.

So the questions begs to be answered, how much do trees communicate with each other, feel, and notice? You will be pressed to find a chapter where so much has not been delved into and researched and discovered as our Chapter 14. In the process, of course you will find and learn much about yourself, if you give yourself time to.

One last irony- Yugen. In 2017-2018, in Mexico City, the Repentino. staff of The American School Foundation chose Yugen as their literary art magazine theme.

Was it coincidence that we revisit this over six years later? One would think when we surround ourselves with slowed down memories of events that allowed us to also discover a little bit about who we are, those memories are more likely to come back to us and mean even more, than the moments we push through to just get from A to B.