If you want to live a life of meaning and purpose be tree-like

Details: Written by: Kamran Mofid; Published: 09 August 2025; Hits: 602

World in Chaos and Despair: The Healing Power of Trees

The time is now to learn how to live like trees

How can we become more tree-like?

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”- John Muir

'When was the last time you stopped to say thank you to a tree?'

The Tree of Wisdom, Old whimsical tree in the Wicklow forest, Ireland.- Photo by Jenny Rainbow: fineartamerica.com

“When I am Among the Trees” By Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,

especially the willows and the honey locust,

equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

in which I have goodness, and discernment,

and never hurry through the world

but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

and call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It's simple,” they say,

“and you too have come

into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled

with light, and to shine.”

The Genius of Trees-how trees rule the world

Baobab Trees in Madagascar, (Also known as The Tree of Life)

The Baobab Tree of Madagascar positively resembles something straight out of a science fiction novel. It’s also known as “the tree of life” and “monkey bread tree”. The trunk is extraordinary in that it can hold up to 120,000 liters of water. For most of the year, the Baobab Tree looks dead and barren, with no leaves or fruits to be seen.This ancient tree species is rumored to be very old. One tree in particular which is 22 meters high and wide enough to fit a pub inside is said to have been carbon dated to over 6,000 years old.-Photo and excerpt:Old is Beautiful, A list of the World’s Oldest Trees

“Whoever has learned how to listen to trees,” Hermann Hesse (July 2, 1877–August 9, 1962) wrote in what remains one of humanity’s most beautiful love letters to trees, “no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.”

"Trees, for me, have always been the most compelling preachers. I worship and adore them when they live in families and tribes, in forests and groves—and even more when they stand alone. They are like solitary people. Not hermits who've stolen away from society out of some weakness, but great lonely people, like Beethoven or Nietzsche. The world rustles in their uppermost branches, their roots rest in the infinite, but they do not lose themselves in either, they work with all the strength of their lives toward just one thing: fulfilling their own law that lives within them, shaping their form, becoming their own selves. Nothing is more sacred, nothing more exemplary, than a strong and beautiful tree."-The Day Hermann Hesse Discovered the Meaning of Life in a Tree

‘The story of how the Earth, and human beings, have been shaped more than we know by these forces of nature’

‘When was the last time you stopped to say thank you to a tree? Perhaps it’s something we should do more often. After all, we owe them everything, from the air we breathe to the soil beneath our feet, and far less obvious things too. We have trees to thank for the swirl of our fingerprints, our posture, and possibly even our dreams.

‘In her new book, British tree science consultant Harriet Rix presents trees as an awesome force of nature, a force that has, over time, “woven the world into a place of great beauty and extraordinary variety”. How have trees done this? And can they really be said to possess “genius”?...Continue to read

Puzzlewood, Gloucestershire, a moss-covered ancient woodland. Photo: England's Best Ancient Woodlands

The Charter of the Forest, sealed on 6th November 1217

‘On November 6 1217, Henry III’s Charter of the Forest gave ordinary English people back their traditional rights to use royal hunting grounds for livestock grazing and collecting firewood. The freedoms that were restored in the use of ancient woodland reshaped the community’s legal and political relationship with nature. But, today, this relationship has broken down. Only 2% of the UK’s ancient woodland survives; over half has been destroyed since the 1930s. Only 13% of the UK is covered with trees, compared to the European average of 37%. And so exactly 800 years on, in Lincoln Castle, home of the original charter, a new Charter for Trees, Woods and People has been launched by the Woodland Trust.

The Charter of the Forest-Photo via Visit Lincoln

'The purpose of the new charter is to set out “the principles by which trees and people in the UK can stand together”. In the face of problems such as low planting rates, inconsistent management, threats from housing and infrastructure developments, the desire is to “build a people-powered movement for trees” and to “demonstrate the important role that trees play in people’s lives”. The principles of the charter include the protection of irreplaceable trees and woods, the creation of transport networks for wildlife, the strengthening of habitats with trees and the development of an action plan to harness their health benefits. Its purpose is to serve as a unified “rallying cry” for disparate voices and organisations, and so to bring the plight of trees and woodlands to national consciousness, in a particularly cogent way…’-Excerpts from Why we need a better philosophy of trees

Must -read books

Trees: An Anthology of Writings and Paintings

Learn more and buy the book HERE

The Genius of Trees

How trees mastered the elements and shaped the world