Trees and Lungs

Lots of things are coming to my attention these days that make me want to scream. You may have heard me already in your dreams or those quiet spaces between your heartbeats. Many people that I have talked to recently tell me that they have been feeling angry and shocked and don’t really know why. I have a few ideas – you can read them and think about them and hopefully they will speak to you in a healing way.

If you go to any online bookseller and search the term “nature spirits” you will find that there are many authors who write about this esoteric and invisible subject. Like many things if we can’t see them we have a hard time believing they are real. Funny how people don’t question that electricity, radio waves, and cell signals are real. I guess it is because the outcome of those energies is a practical everyday tool. We tend to take the end result of the nature spirits’ existence, our natural environment, for granted, until things start to get way out of whack, such as back to back earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, spilling oil wells…

In our community woodlots are being cut down or threatened, and some of us might be feeling the agony of the destruction in our physical and emotional bodies. Have any of you had trouble sleeping lately, or feel frustrated and angry, or deep grief for no apparent reason? It might be that you are empathizing with the experiences of the plant life and the creatures who are losing their homes. For many of you I know that this sounds crazy, but for others this is a basic understanding. This country’s aboriginal cultures survived and thrived before we European types showed up and changed the way of things. Indigenous people are trained by parents and elders how to maintain intimate relationships with the natural world in which they live and they understand that their lives depend on this world.

Our disconnection from nature has helped us to forget a lot of things. Have you ever noticed that the shape of a tree is very similar to the shape of our lungs? They both follow dendritic patterns that efficiently cover surface area. Drainage patterns of our body also match drainage patterns of the planet. This is a visual representation of the concept that we are interconnected. Trees provide shade, oxygen, soil stabilization, food, water purification, habitat, protection from the wind, limbs to climb, healing energy…How do you feel when you spend time in a tree barren area? How do you feel when you have spent time in or near trees?

Recent events have reminded me that we do not have tree or woodlot protection bylaws in our municipality or the neighbouring municipality of Essex. http://ontariowoodlot.com/photos_2007/bylaw_photos/Bylawmap_6-09_hires.pdf

About 12 years ago I became aware of this but remained passive about the information as I was leaving the area and saving my energy for my new community. Well I am back and it is time to update our ways, especially since our strategic plan identifies us as a green community http://www.chatham-kent.ca/NR/rdonlyres/B385214C-A644-404E-A522-9FAD48714D03/5896/CSPMasterrevisedJAN08.pdf see page 16.

If you want to join our efforts to establish these bylaws here please get in touch and help us out.

In the meantime if you want to be a part of the solution focus on the healthy natural resources that we do have here in Chatham-Kent, and express your gratitude for them. Maybe you can plant a tree or two if you have the resources to do it. Make the small changes that you can to protect the environment. Every little bit does help. A drop in the pond eventually reaches the shores of that pond. You are significant and your actions are significant.

Additional Information

http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Business/Forests/2ColumnSubPage/STEL02_166334.html

http://www.treecanada.ca/programs/urbanforestry/cufn/Resources_Canadian/Tree%20Conservation%20By-Laws%20in%20Southern%20Ontario.pdf

http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Life-Plants-Peter-Tompkins/dp/0060915870