A moment of awe

The following is from an article written by Barry Boyce in the August 2017 issue of "Mindful" magazine.  It was sent to me by my friend, Bruce Valley.  I LOVE when people think of me when they read an article about trees.  Makes me happy.

"Each day as I come home from work, I walk on a tree-lined street that's like a small forest.  Some days I'm utterly lost in thought, but when possible I try to drink it all in.  It's so much more nourishing than looking at a screen.  If I had to choose between a tree and a newsfeed--including a newsfeed about beautiful trees--I would choose the tree.  EVERY TIME.

A friend of mine is an arborist who has long exposed me...to the wonder of trees and forests.  Whenever we enter the land of trees, almost instantly the mood changes.  There is a palpable slowing down of thought and speech.  You can hear more, and better.  You begin to sense with more of your body.  Some psychologists now consider this complex of mental and bodily experiences to be an emotion, which they call awe, and it's considered restorative.  The forest is Awe Central.

Perhaps the greatest features of these large organisms that we share our world with is that their power and grace and talent. Trees help us reduce our obsession with being the center of everything and expose the folly...of short-term thinking.  They allow us to feel a part of a much greater whole...we are both small and large.  And while our individual time on Earth is short, our actions ripple through time, and as a human community, our life is very, very long."