Hi Neighbour,
Today, I had an ‘aha moment’, when I looked at the many shades of green we are seeing on the North Shore—not that I don’t see them every Spring. But I wonder if you feel the wonder of Mother Nature at this time of the year, especially after a few very wet months. Maybe I’ve been feeling drenched, more than others of you, because I want to get my garden growing.
We’re so lucky to live on the North Shore, don’t you think? Even if you don’t go hiking on the mountains, you have trees around you, and we, who live near Grand Boulevard, have some spectacular flowering or tall evergreen trees in our neighbourhood. Our North Shore evergreens fascinate me. Some have branches that swoop out from the trunk; some branches are flat and seem to be pointing toward the ground, like hands; some go straight skyward and make a strong, confident statement.
I remember a study that was looking at the recovery of patients in a small town hospital in Pennsylvania, between 1972 and 1981. The patients were matched, in terms of age, gender, weight, status as smokers or nonsmokers and medical treatment after gallbladder surgery. The only differentiating factor was the view from their identical hospital rooms: some patients could look out the window of their room and see a small stand of trees; and others looked out their window and saw a brick wall. The research showed that patients in rooms with a view of trees needed fewer doses of painkillers; their nurses reported fewer negative notes during their stay; and they went home a day sooner than the patients in rooms with a view of a brick wall. Plenty of studies have shown similar effects. Some studies have shown that even brief nature videos are a powerful way to feel awe, wonder, gratitude and reverence—all positive emotions known to lead to increased well-being and physical health. Nature is a pathway to human health and happiness, lessening stress and hastening healing.
Have you heard of Suzanne Simard? She’s a UBC ecologist, who has just released her first book, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest. She has studied the way trees help one another and communicate about pests and other environmental threats, in Nature’s underground, through an intricately interconnected network of mycorrhizal fungi that colonize trees’ roots. It seems that Western science focused on the individual organism, and its above-ground life, but, with Suzanne’s research, science is now looking at the functioning of the larger community of trees, below ground. They are social beings, in constantly evolving relationships. They even protect vulnerable saplings of their same species. Mother trees are the ancient giants that play a pivotal role in the ecosystem. We need to do our best to protect them.
So, go on! Hug a tree! It’ll do you both a lot of good.
Fiona