Women Who Love Trees
By, for, and about women (and all) who love trees.
Ever since I was a young girl in Atlanta, GA, I have loved trees. Mostly climbing them. I grew to enjoy time in nature on many hikes with my father in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. My 94-year-old Dad is still at it! Such an inspiration. As a young adult on a camping trip in the Grand Tetons, a friend proclaimed that I was a "tree elf" seeing me hanging out in a hollow tree trunk. It occurs to me she may have been right.
What is Women Who Love Trees?
This project was inspired by a beautiful Northern red oak tree that resided beside our town home in Burlington, VT. Unfortunately, the lower left photo was all that was left of our beloved tree after a neighbor, backed by the homeowners' association, insisted the tree be removed fearing a branch from the healthy tree might damage their roof. We're still awaiting a "replacement tree".
After learning of the plan to cut the tree and commencing a campaign to save it, we began lavishing "her" with attention and care. We adorned her with a ribbon at Christmastime and Valentine's Day. (Looks like a bustle, right?) Her wide branches were so beautiful! A minister friend gave me a liturgy "for the felling of trees" that we kept ready for a day we hoped would never come. That day came on February 17, 2021. We sang and prayed for the tree, offering thanks for all she gave over her many years (we figure about 80), asking forgiveness. This project honors the "spirit" of the oak and all trees who give us so much - even the breath of life.
(above: a mighty Redwood in Northern California. Courtesy Donna C. Roberts.)
By, for, and about women (and all) who love trees.
Ever since I was a young girl in Atlanta, GA, I have loved trees. Mostly climbing them. I grew to enjoy time in nature on many hikes with my father in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. My 94-year-old Dad is still at it! Such an inspiration. As a young adult on a camping trip in the Grand Tetons, a friend proclaimed that I was a "tree elf" seeing me hanging out in a hollow tree trunk. It occurs to me she may have been right.
What is Women Who Love Trees?
This project was inspired by a beautiful Northern red oak tree that resided beside our town home in Burlington, VT. Unfortunately, the lower left photo was all that was left of our beloved tree after a neighbor, backed by the homeowners' association, insisted the tree be removed fearing a branch from the healthy tree might damage their roof. We're still awaiting a "replacement tree".
After learning of the plan to cut the tree and commencing a campaign to save it, we began lavishing "her" with attention and care. We adorned her with a ribbon at Christmastime and Valentine's Day. (Looks like a bustle, right?) Her wide branches were so beautiful! A minister friend gave me a liturgy "for the felling of trees" that we kept ready for a day we hoped would never come. That day came on February 17, 2021. We sang and prayed for the tree, offering thanks for all she gave over her many years (we figure about 80), asking forgiveness. This project honors the "spirit" of the oak and all trees who give us so much - even the breath of life.
(above: a mighty Redwood in Northern California. Courtesy Donna C. Roberts.)
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Some hopeful news....
After becoming depressed by the tree's removal and listening to my inner voice (or the tree spirit, who can say?) inviting me to do something to honor the tree (this project!), I was thrilled to find several oak seedlings growing in three potted plants which spent summers shaded under the great oak's branches. I tried replanting the seedlings in nearby protected forests, with the help of other tree-lovers, including my autistic son Gabriel, who loves to joke with me that, "Trees don't have feelings!" He knows full well that they do...and that I'll always respond to that jab.
(Yes, that's Gabe perusing the Sunday New York Times, as I plant. So much for collaboration!)
As a friend said after I told her of the seedlings' discovery, it's really encouraging to see life continue like this. Unfortunately, the trunk was recently removed, after a tree grinder arrived to do its dirty work one early morning. I still don't know why the stump needed to be removed, nor the tree, for that matter. Even the stump showed no sign of disease. I've written a few poems about this experience which I've shared with my women's writing group and in a wonderful, virtual course, The Spiritual Wisdom of Trees: Insights from our Elders. Maybe I'll share them here at some point. Maybe. The last writing features an expletive - I'd actually never uttered - at the moment I was rudely awakened by a tree grinder!
Sometimes you've gotta call it like it is. My friend Alice Walker writes in her book of the same name, "Hard times call for furious dancing".
I might add that hard times also call for speaking your uncensored truth...or voicing your "sacred rage" as writer Terry Tempest Williams told me.
May we do whatever we can wherever we are to care for the natural world which sustains all life and needs us now more than ever.
Here are some nature-related activities and resources to help you connect with nature...and trees, in particular:
-Center for Spirituality in Nature is soon restarting its program, The Spiritual Wisdom of Trees: Insights from Our Elders".
It was a deeply moving 6-week course with recorded and live virtual components.
A few great books I've been reading:
-Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, by Suzanne Simard (soon to be made into a film.)
-Like A Tree - How Trees, Women & Tree People Can Save the Planet, by Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.
-All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, Edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson.
-Rosa Guayaba, web-based home of resources including the wonderful 20-minute film, One Word - Sawalmem, about indigenous perspectives on water, and activism to save wild salmon. They also have a nature practice program. https://www.rosaguayaba.earth/e/BAh7BjoWZW1haWxfZGVsaXZlcnlfaWRsKwcN1bWq--54867be6ff6fe77a8d60a2d4f4fc0fa24e04b84e?skip_click_tracking=true#
-I've participated in a couple of webinars about Plant Communication featuring Pam Montgomery and learned so much! Here's a link to her website. www.wakeuptonature.com/plantcommunication
-Creating in Nature. Workshops allowing participants to BE and create in the natural world (writing, drawing, photography, whatever calls!) I've been developing this with a poet-friend. To learn more email me at: [email protected]
What are you doing that should be shared here? Please let me know! [email protected]
After becoming depressed by the tree's removal and listening to my inner voice (or the tree spirit, who can say?) inviting me to do something to honor the tree (this project!), I was thrilled to find several oak seedlings growing in three potted plants which spent summers shaded under the great oak's branches. I tried replanting the seedlings in nearby protected forests, with the help of other tree-lovers, including my autistic son Gabriel, who loves to joke with me that, "Trees don't have feelings!" He knows full well that they do...and that I'll always respond to that jab.
(Yes, that's Gabe perusing the Sunday New York Times, as I plant. So much for collaboration!)
As a friend said after I told her of the seedlings' discovery, it's really encouraging to see life continue like this. Unfortunately, the trunk was recently removed, after a tree grinder arrived to do its dirty work one early morning. I still don't know why the stump needed to be removed, nor the tree, for that matter. Even the stump showed no sign of disease. I've written a few poems about this experience which I've shared with my women's writing group and in a wonderful, virtual course, The Spiritual Wisdom of Trees: Insights from our Elders. Maybe I'll share them here at some point. Maybe. The last writing features an expletive - I'd actually never uttered - at the moment I was rudely awakened by a tree grinder!
Sometimes you've gotta call it like it is. My friend Alice Walker writes in her book of the same name, "Hard times call for furious dancing".
I might add that hard times also call for speaking your uncensored truth...or voicing your "sacred rage" as writer Terry Tempest Williams told me.
May we do whatever we can wherever we are to care for the natural world which sustains all life and needs us now more than ever.
Here are some nature-related activities and resources to help you connect with nature...and trees, in particular:
-Center for Spirituality in Nature is soon restarting its program, The Spiritual Wisdom of Trees: Insights from Our Elders".
It was a deeply moving 6-week course with recorded and live virtual components.
A few great books I've been reading:
-Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, by Suzanne Simard (soon to be made into a film.)
-Like A Tree - How Trees, Women & Tree People Can Save the Planet, by Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.
-All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, Edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson.
-Rosa Guayaba, web-based home of resources including the wonderful 20-minute film, One Word - Sawalmem, about indigenous perspectives on water, and activism to save wild salmon. They also have a nature practice program. https://www.rosaguayaba.earth/e/BAh7BjoWZW1haWxfZGVsaXZlcnlfaWRsKwcN1bWq--54867be6ff6fe77a8d60a2d4f4fc0fa24e04b84e?skip_click_tracking=true#
-I've participated in a couple of webinars about Plant Communication featuring Pam Montgomery and learned so much! Here's a link to her website. www.wakeuptonature.com/plantcommunication
-Creating in Nature. Workshops allowing participants to BE and create in the natural world (writing, drawing, photography, whatever calls!) I've been developing this with a poet-friend. To learn more email me at: [email protected]
What are you doing that should be shared here? Please let me know! [email protected]
