Make a New Friend. With a Tree.

The thing about trees is that they stay where they are rooted.

Trees change every single day, adding a tiny bud here, sprouting a new limb there, expanding bark, reaching up, closing over, stretching underground. But they also stay put.

Us humans, on the other hand, are go-go-go, moving this way and that way, sometimes without even knowing where or why or how we’re going. Trees, I imagine, find this movement a bit perplexing. They have everything they want and need right there where they are, they thrive in their place.

They thrive in their place.

I have many tree friends that I visit on a regular basis, and some trees that I only see every once in a great while.

There’s this one tree that I visit a lot, sometimes several times a week, and she is marvelous. I call her the Mother Tree because of Suzanne Simard’s ground-breaking work on forest communication where she explains the role of the Mother Trees in forests for sharing information, nutrients, and so much more with all her plant kin.

This Mother Tree who lives down the road from me is really thriving in her place. When I need a little extra power, I go see her and breathe in her awesomeness.

If you’ve never breathed in the awesomeness of a tree, I say stop reading this right now and go do it.

I’ll help you do it the first time, this is what you do: stand at the base of their trunk and then step backwards enough so you can look up and see the tippy-top of this tree. Then take in a slow, deep, inhale and when you fill up your whole torso, hold your breath for one, two, three counts.

Then slowly exhale.

Then smile.

Look at your tree friend and say thank you, because you know that breath you just took filled you with something you didn’t even know you were missing.

  I won’t go into all the research that’s coming out now about the therapeutic benefits of being with trees, but our heart rate slows down when we’re with trees, and even just looking at trees can reduce blood pressure and the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline.

And when our stress hormones decrease and our heart rate slows down and our breathing improves and we feast our eyes on these beautiful creatures who live on this earth with us, guess what else happens? Our levels of contentment and happiness increase.

Human contentment and happiness increase with trees. Need I say more?

Making tree friends will bring you joy and happiness, I promise.

Sometimes I make tree friends that I may never see again, but I still consider them a friend. Like this one tree that lives on the side of the water that rushes out of the Great Smoky Mountains near Cherokee, North Carolina.

Let me tell you about this tree.

This tree has the thickest, softest, most luxurious covering of moss at the base of their trunk that flows out onto the ground. The trunk is leaning enough to one side that it made the perfect angle for me to sit in, then really sink into. This was the softest tree I had ever met, and if I wasn’t more than a little worried about roaming black bears, I would have drifted off to sleep.

In fact, it just occurred to me that perhaps the Goldilocks story is really about a forest-loving human who stumbled upon the most comfortable tree in the woods and fell fast asleep until she was startled awake and realized she was in baby bear’s bed.

I think I was definitely resting in baby bear’s bed.

Anyway, humans are clearly not the only animals who make friends with trees.

Do you see squirrels running, jumping, climbing, flying their way through the forest? Squirrels and trees are definitely friends.

And the birds.

If you’re really lucky, when you’re visiting a tree friend, everything will be quieter than you thought was possible and out of nowhere there will be a tiny birdsong coming from the distance.

You’ll inhale again, slowly, hold for 1-2-3 counts, and exhale.

And you’ll say thank you, bird.

Because you didn’t even know you were missing that.

Trees thrive where they are rooted, which means they’ll probably be there when you return, which means you can visit anytime, which means you might take that for granted but that would be the worst possible thing you could do. Instead, think about them waiting there each day giving you the opportunity to see how they’ve changed. They’ve seen it all in the daylight and dark; in the heat and cold and through all the storms; in and out of every season each year; and they have encountered every kind of visitor we can imagine and more we don’t even know exist.

And yet, when I visit, I like to think they recognize my scent, my presence, my gratitude.

My friendship.

Come to think of it, humans also thrive in their place. Sure, we move around a lot more than trees, but look at us. Look at you. You, too, are stretching upward and outward, expanding your perception of your surroundings, in constant communication with the world right beyond your skin, weathering the storms, sprouting new leaves, growing new branches, healing the places on you and within you that were wounded, soaking up the rain, blooming with the light.

Maybe making friends with a tree helps us to make friends with ourselves. Right here, in this place, where we are rooted, for now.

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