I Am a Tree

I am a tree. A sequoia to be exact. I was born just after the death of Jesus, two thousand years ago. The world was so different then. Few alive today can really put themselves in that time and place and understand just how much things have changed. I’ve seen it all change from my view here in the woods. I’ve seen people struggle in a multitude of landscapes. Whether it was two thousand years ago or today, it is essentially the same struggle. People want, they don’t get, or they loose. And then they cry, and prey. Some get angry and kill other humans or command a young, hungry army to strategically destroy an entire people. I’ve seen this happen over and over. I know better, and I have taught a few of you how you can live differently, but over the years it is becoming increasingly rare that a human can hear my voice.

I don’t see things in the same way as people do. My “eyes” as you call them are much different than human and animal eyes. They aren’t lenses like yours, which take in light and color information. They are, well lets just say different. You don’t really have the understanding to comprehend. What matters is that I see everything, all at once. I see people and animals and the earth and all are in movement, like bubbling waters in a sulfurous pool.

The peoples emotions, their desires and fears are frequencies which are transmitted through the ether, floating like a cloud across the sky, or the music of a violinist on the street of New York City. I pick up and read these frequencies much like you see and hear. By the way, the animals have emotions, fears and desires too, just in case you were wondering. For the record, they may be simpler in some ways but at least they are in tune with nature still. The humans on the other hand are a symphony of musicians all playing their solo at the same time. The conductor has gone home. Life as a tree is kind of like being a conductor.

As a very large tree, I carry a lot of weight here in the forest. My voice certainly matters and in my many years I have accumulated a lot of information which I share with the other trees and plants and animals. But I work with the other old trees, the other conductors of the forests. I need their help to distribute information. Unfortunately they are becoming fewer and fewer each passing year.

So far I have been fortunate to escape the axe. I know my days are numbered though. I have seen you stand before me in your little plastic orange vests, rubbing your hands together, measuring my body and writing in your notebooks. I hear the roar of machines in the distance and the thunderous fall of my comrades.

It’s incredible what you humans have done to the earth and to my fellow trees. Over four hundred years ago when you got aggressive about harvesting us, you did so with the tiniest of tools. Chipping away in multiple shifts, over days and weeks sometimes. The trees back then were very old, they would make me look like a spring chicken. Their girth was impressive to say the least.

As time wore on you developed bigger more efficient tools but the job was still hard and I watched you work your little soft hands until they bled, wanting so badly to cut down the beautiful life-giving trees which you could only see as profit, and a challenge. You love a good challenge. When the trees fell the earth shook for miles around, the animals ran for cover. Your thirst grew and the earth wept as you cleared the land. You were like children, so ignorant and small and obsessed with your need to dominate nature.

By the time you invented the chainsaw it was far too late for you to understand the error of your ways. We were already a fraction of what we once were and our accumulated knowledge was dwindling. Then the big machines came that could cut trees like a scissor cuts thread. And so on. It never ends. What was once a trial that brought at least a superficial reverence for the greatness of us old growth trees as you call us, became just another day on the job.

I didn’t mean to go on a rant about you cutting us down, I only meant to express how much the world has changed and how those changes have effected us trees and all of nature. What I want to say to you now, if you are still listening is that we are more complex than you may realize, and we are more important than our wood is as a commodity. Our roles as conductors of the forests is vital. Do you even know about plant intelligence? Most of you don’t anymore. Like I said, its becoming rare. There was a time when most people could talk to plants and the elders were passing this info on to their children, but then the war against the earth started and the druids and witches are healers were all killed, as if they were a thing of evil.

The greatest evil here today, the real evil is the deception that you are separate from the earth, that you are above it and better than it. That you can manipulate it anyway you want and there will not be repercussions. When you clear the earth you are stealing. The trees are not yours, so why do you think you can own us?

Listen to me: you are small and powerless compared to the power of Earth. Your plans are fruitless, you will fail, you will be swallowed up by the earth and you will die. And when you are gone time will erase your existence completely and the earth will return to balance. It will be like you never existed…

Ah, do you feel that cool breeze? The warmth of the sun on this spring day? Life is coming back online after a long winter and it feels good to be alive. It feels good to be a tree.

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Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any thoughts on this little story. Also have a look at my art while you’re here. Art is my full time profession, these little stories are just for fun.