• People -- Introduction
• Living Memorials: Acts of Social Meaning Create Places of Resilience
• People's Relationship with Trees
• Lessons from the Field: Living Memorial Stewards

People's Relationship with Trees

The Healing Power of Trees – Why We Marvel
By Anne Wiesen

The presence of trees heals us on many levels. On the physical plane we are fed and nourished by the same natural elements that feed and nurture the tree itself: sunlight, water, mineral nutrients, a proper exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, and supporting community contexts. Healthy trees can indicate a healthy environment, and therefore a healthy and secure place to make our home. Further, lacking legs to flee predators, or seek shelter from harsh climate conditions, trees have evolved chemical properties to manage local stressors. These chemical compounds serve human needs as well, and can act as our medicine. (Example: Ornamental, Medicinal, Aromatic Trees, Food)

On the emotional and psychological level, trees have been given meanings that have been passed down by generations of cultures, and to these meanings, we add our own personal associations. In these ways, the presence of trees can hold our emotional and psychological connection to those who have gone before us, and those who will come after us. (Examples: Offered symbolically in love and sorrow, celebration)

On the spiritual plane, gardens can affect us energetically – they can induce a state of harmony not found in the everyday urban world…a harmony that resonates with our inner selves. They can stretch our awareness deeply into the gifts of our time and place…they can stretch our awareness beyond our time and place. Many of us creating memorial gardens are seeking peace in our minds, hearts, and environments; harmony in our communities; and actions that reflect and further reverence for life. And we are drawn to create spaces where our communities can gather in the presence of trees. We are calling these spaces healing gardens and healing spaces.

Cross-Cultural Symbolism of Trees

In the Presence of Trees

Many of us notice the correspondence of the living tree to our own world of challenges and hopes for growth and ripening, community, and purpose. Regardless of background, where we have been raised, city or country, we are all evolutionarily prepared to benefit from being in the presence of trees. By learning about their ancient roots and nurturing purposes, by witnessing their massive structures and disarming silence, the presence of trees offers an opportunity to direct our attention to own development, behavior and purpose. Are we also cultivating a place of peace, deep purpose and connection?

The Tree of Life

The tree has been viewed in many cultures as sacred because trees support life on earth, and have capabilities (“powers”) that approach those of the “immortals”.

Trees:

• Endlessly Renew Themselves
  Trees (and all plants) can renew plant parts such as stems, leaves, roots, throughout their lifespan, unlike representatives of the animal kingdom, whose morphology is laid down only once in the embryonic developmental stage. Plants are a manifestation of the living reality of life renewing itself. Renewal is also accomplished seasonally by the replacement of deciduous leaves in springtime. These attributes have been appreciated as “powers” in indigenous cultures, and are highly under-valued in industrialized contemporary societies.
• Endlessly Reproduce Themselves, and therefore have been viewed as immortal.
  Trees reproducing by clone, such as the aspen and huckelberry, can create miles of offspring over thousands of years. They represent and ever-flowing spring of life.
• Support Human Life
  Providing food, shelter, water, oxygen, building materials, medicine.
• Support the Living Planet
  Plants are the only organism to convert the sun’s energy into a useable source of food for itself, as well as for all other living organisms.
• Can be Larger and Longer Lived than Humans
  Many indigenous traditions see the tree as the image of the cosmos – with roots in the underworld, trunk in the earthly world, and canopy in the heavens. The tree therefore seems to be living in the past, present and future simultaneously.

Ecological Health and Human Health

• Practice of Observing Objectively: Action based on Understanding/Learning
• Practice of Nurturing: Responsiveness, Care, Kindness, Creating Community
• Practice of Adjusting to Seasons Larger Than Ourselves: Acceptance, Tolerance
• Practice of Understanding our Place in the Universe: Diversity, Gratitude
• Practice of Seeing Deeply: Learning to See Not Objects (a tree), but ancient Processes (adaptations over millions of years) and Interconnectedness of all Life (tree as sunlight, water, energy from the sun, multiple adaptations, born of two parents, meaning to the community)