The trees wish to share from there perspective what it is like to be. They communicate in telepathy and remind us that we are one with them and one with the all. The trees consider themselves each a tree within a greater whole or wholes. The first whole is the forest that they inhabit, and then the other plants, animals and life forms. They share that they feel themselves as the earth and are inbedded in her, Mother Earth, and have become her through the roots and the exchange of energy and matter with the Mother or Mater, the Latin word for mother. They show us that minerals are her life force and we see minerals as a different thing. They absorb the life force of the Mother and give back their life force with the all, the One. We see minerals as a small constituent that helps us be healthy, a necessity like vitamins that comes through our food. We see it as a virtually irrelevant, tiny, and not so important thing. Yet the trees see our and their exchange of life force with Mother Earth as our continued bonding and blending. They show how the minerals in our blood connect us to Mother Earth and allow us to be a part of her and her a part of us. It is through experiencing each other as ourselves.
Photo: Michael Hanson – Olympic National Park, Washington
Spending time in nature is healing energy for the mind, body and soul. The idea with Shinrin-yoku, a term coined by the government in 1982 but inspired by ancient Shinto and Buddhist practices, is to let nature enter your body through all five senses, and feel at one with the forest. It is about being mindful of your surroundings and the experience. It’s not about extreme outdoor sports or being alone in the wilderness, but about allowing your body and psyche to unwind in the peace of the woods, similar to natural aromatherapy. Ancient wisdom and tribes, who live in harmony with nature, have advocated this for long, and only in recent years there have been studies carried out to prove the health benefits of forest bathing.
In this real-life model of forest resilience and regeneration, Professor Suzanne Simard shows that all trees in a forest ecosystem are interconnected, with the largest, oldest, "mother trees" serving as hubs. The underground exchange of nutrients increases the survival of younger trees linked into the network of old trees. Amazingly, we find that in a forest, 1+1 equals more than 2.
Suzanne W. Simard - Faculty Profile (live link with tons more info/links)
Dr. Suzanne Simard is a professor with the UBC Faculty of Forestry, where she lectures on and researches the role of mycorrhizae and mycorrhizal networks in tree species migrations with climate change disturbance. Networks of mycorrhizal fungal mycelium have recently been discovered by Professor Suzanne Simard and her graduate students to connect the roots of trees and facilitate the sharing of resources in Douglas-fir forests of interior British Columbia, thereby bolstering their resilience against disturbance or stress and facilitating the establishment of new regeneration.
