How To Befriend A Tree: a mutually beneficial healing relationship.

**sigma6** · 6th October 2015 16:10

I can say this... have you ever "lit one"... (or whatever gets you to that place of inner balance) and then walked into a garden? I always am amazed at how, perception of reality is enhanced... and I like to emphasize of course, this is not hallucination... it is quite clearly enhanced perception, your brain is on "auto creativity" mode and everything you see has greater meaning, more detail, more nuance (if you think about it... just contemplate it...)

And on occasion I have walked out into a garden and looked at some of the various flowers, plants, and trees... have you ever seen the inherent beauty in its function?... it is like looking at "slow motion" life... how the branches and leaves are outstretched and pointed to the sky as if to capture the sun's light... gently swaying in the breeze, a symphony of life, quiet, gentle, invisible in plain sight, the background becoming the foreground in a sense, sometimes it's breathtaking... so peaceful, add the evening stars in as background canvas, and it's like you're almost having one of those "cosmic consciousness moments"

Now recreate that entire scene... but instead you walked into someone's specialized shop, who owns (just saying) an artificial plant store... and all the grass and all the plants are just plastic, maybe he has set it up as a display. Now you are walking through the exact same scene again, this time though it's astro turf, plastic flowers, tall plants and even artificial trees, but visually it looks the exactly the same (even though you know you are in a "shop display" ...and even at night (say it's in "greenhouse" (for added effect), so that we have kept all our variables constant (but one...)

Would it be possible to have the same experience? ;-)

**onawah** · 6th October 2015 17:26

There's another thread here:
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...onn#post996632
...about trees, with more links to articles, etc. about trees.

**conk** · 9th October 2015 17:31

Some of my fondest memories from childhood involve trees. Two of them in particular and one grove of trees. We always played in the grove by the creek. Along the creek bank was a huge tree with massive roots bigger than us kids. We could hide among the roots and imagine all sorts of things. Another gigantic tree was beside my house. It would have taken 5 or 6 grown men, with arms outstretched, to go around this tree. We nailed boards on it for use a ladder and built a platform on one of the lower branches. I could sit up there for hours. I wanted to cry when the utility company cut it down. It was majestic and deserving of a longer life.

Thank you all for these very nice posts.

**ErtheVessel** · 9th October 2015 20:05

Sigma6, enjoyed your post. And your question, "Would it be possible to have the same experience?" makes me ponder the question, How is it that we DO know the difference? How do we actually recognize that which is living from that which is dead? Why is one nourishing and the other is not?

Sorry! Don't mean to derail the thread, but I love these questions.

Trees are so mysteriously healing. I wonder why.

**Innocent Warrior** · 27th November 2015 13:39

sigma6 wrote;

And on occasion I have walked out into a garden and looked at some of the various flowers, plants, and trees... have you ever seen the inherent beauty in its function?... it is like looking at "slow motion" life... how the branches and leaves are outstretched and pointed to the sky as if to capture the sun's light... gently swaying in the breeze, a symphony of life, quiet, gentle, invisible in plain sight,

I marvel at how much plants move, when watching timelapse videos. Flowers dance in circles, ferns roll out while dancing in circles, and mushrooms are wild, they swell up out of the ground and then fan out.