Trees

Tree Thoughts

Im having a moment…

I think we take trees for granted. 

For our brief lifetimes we experience trees as a permanent fixture, there each and every morning when we wake, still there as we lie to rest in the evening. I’m guessing most among us don’t think much about trees at all. Mostly we admire only the greatest, the grandest. We seem to more often notice a tree when the forces of nature bring change - ice snapping a limb, wind splitting a trunk, beetles driving the inevitable end. 

We think about trees as we plant them. We know that as we plant trees, their expected maturity is not for us. It’s for the future. That’s easy to say… because that notion is presented in every book, every manual, every publication. Go deeper than that. 

If you do think about trees more than the average person, how often do you truly ponder their significance? Significance in linear time and in sheer numbers. In scale on the landscape. In their resilience and adaptability. Significance in their stubbornness to push back against the wrongs of our own species… 

And their importance. How many ways are the trees that surround you important to your being? Think about that. 

How often do you notice a new tree springing to life? Truly, at ground level, where a tiny set of leaves is dwarfed by neighboring specimens. Tree seedlings by the thousands go largely unnoticed. Mowed over. Trampled under foot. Eaten by wildlife. Yet each and every spring a vibrant and explosive regeneration occurs. And it happens despite our fullest ignorance, regardless of our pressures or constraints.

These seedlings all have the potential to become a grand specimen. Given the proper conditions, our grandchildren’s grandchildren may one day take for granted the shimmer of poplar, the towering oaks or the brilliant shade of a field grown sugar maple - trees that are seedlings now, during our lifetimes. Or perhaps, hopefully, they will share an understanding of the significance of the trees that are part of their lives. Perhaps, they will not take trees for granted. 

This is the mindset I’m trying to achieve as I stare at the first true leaf rising from the red stem of this propagated American sycamore. I’m struck with awe at the significance of this moment. One leaf. Just one leaf…. 

The American sycamore can stand for 200 to 600 years. In human scaling, that’s eight to twenty generations. Eight to twenty generations removed from our lifetime, this particular tree may tower 100 feet over the forest floor, prominent and regal. 

And here I am, observing its very first leaf…

Trees are awesome. 

Life. Is. Awesome.

- Adam