“The wisdom of trees” permeated the peaceful woods this summer. We learned a lot ABOUT trees! We learned about…

• Trees’ fascinating, communicative root system. 
• Sturdy heartwood. 
• Seemingly miraculous leaves that generate energy. 
• Extravagant procreating of fruit and seeds.
• The way the trees’ cycle of life carries on, year after year, revealing a kind of parallel “paschal mystery” of life, growth, death, rebirth and life again.  

We also EXPERIENCED “the wisdom of trees” together.

From my spot during our daily “Tree Sit,” perched on the roots of the sugar maple that shades the camp bell at the center of camp, I experienced “the wisdom of trees” week after week; wisdom that drew many of us into a kind of communion/relationship with the trees around us. 

– I saw High Schoolers ease into their practice of sitting with a tree throughout the week, eventually settling in and allowing their strong bodies to be supported by the sturdy heartwood at the core of the trees (trees that they soon realized have grown and developed, in most cases, significantly longer than the young people themselves).

-I saw 8-year-old campers during Pre-Junior Camp (the hottest week of the summer!) tenderly share water from their water bottles with their tree friends.

-I saw families with young children, each selecting a tree and spending quite time alone/together, resting with each other and with their expanded tree “family”.

And I saw, and heard of, summer staff members who returned to visit “their tree” throughout the summer to rest… to ponder…. to be renewed… over and over again. 

So on the last day of our final Family Camp, after the cabins were cleaned and the Dining Hall mopped and the summer staff lounge packed up for another year, the summer staff returned to the trees they had befriended during orientation two months earlier. After sitting with “their tree” for a bit they returned – more calm, more grounded, more reflective. 

They shared about feeling comforted by their tree – a steady presence throughout the summer.

They spoke of a kind of communion, as the tree made glucose and fed on that sugar even as the summer staffer snacked on sugary gummy bears. There was something oddly Holy – even Sacred – in communing together with their tree.

They relayed how much they’d learned about the wonders of trees – and the millions of leaves at work all around us generating energy and clean air and beauty all the time … And how good it was to gratefully NOTICE it all.

And they spoke of the peace, the calm, the rest they experienced sitting in the shade of their tree, beholding the sun illuminating the leaves while they did nothing but sit. And listen. And wonder. And experience some mystery beyond words. Something Holy. Something, one could say, of God.

It brought to mind the words of the summer’s theme song, “Thinkin’ Like a Tree”, written by summer worship leader, Lucas Lehman. As we sang these words, day after day, the wisdom of the trees took root in us:

Thinkin’ like a tree, takin’ our time, we are listening,

To the music of life, the sound of the forest is making us smile

While the birds keep chirping and we sit for a while.

Chorus: 

Soooo stretch out your branches, fill them up with light.

Send out the message, share it left and right.

Quiet as a mouse. Louder than the sea.

The great big forest wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for you and me.

Rooted in the love, our hearts are full, we are dancing

‘Cause it’s making us whole, we live for each other and sometimes we die

But we keep on growing, growing up to the sky. (to Chorus)

Messengers of joy, sharing the sun, we are stronger

When we give everyone a taste of the water, the sugar of life,

That’ll heal our nation of the war and the strife.

Bridge: The power of the forest is hidden in the ground

Bridging roots that heal without a sound

Chorus: 

Soooo stretch out your branches, fill them up with light.

Send out the message, share it left and right.

Quiet as a mouse. Louder than the sea.

The great big forest wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for you and me.

And, indeed, none of US will be quite the same after spending a summer paying close attention to “the wisdom of trees” here in the peaceful woods. 

“And everyone will sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one will make them afraid. The word of our Sovereign God has spoken!”

Micah 4:4