The Tree Huggers

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I have a pin on my backpack that's a picture of a tree with arms around it, and beneath it is the word 'hugger.' Tree hugger. I've always been a tree hugger, there's hardly anything I love more than going into the woods (preferably barefoot and preferably when it's warm out) and just walking among the trees, feeling the bark, watching how the sun shines through the leaves and hearing the wind through the branches. I'm just now realizing how woods walks really make use of all your senses.

Tu BiSh'vat, the Jewish Festival of the Trees just took place, and recently, my mom sent me this article basically about the science of tree hugging. What is says, is that a recent scientific study has proven that tree hugging, and just being in the vicinity of trees, is good for you. Everything vibrates right? On an atomic level, everything is vibrating at its own frequency, and the "vibrational properties," as the authors describe it, that trees give off can have a positive affect on us humans. Being around trees can help with concentration, depression, stress, headaches and more.

As this was an article relating to Tu BiSh'vat, they mentioned the holiday and religion, and this brought me to my favorite part: as they say "...science is only recently understanding what religions have known for thousands of years." I love this. In the science vs. religion debate, I tend to favor the side of science. It's not that I don't believe in religion, I just like having the proof that I feel science presents. And I know, science is a religion itself.

But what I love about this article is that instead of putting science and religion against each other, it shows how they can be compatible. The article talks about how trees have always been seen as a symbol of strength, and as a bridge between heaven and Earth. So clearly it has always been known by people that trees have a power to them, now we just know that it's real (more real?) and that there's a way to define and measure it.

I don't think this takes the power of trees away from religion to put it into the hands of science. Why should it be that things are only religiously believed or scientifically proven? Why can't it be both.

https://www.freeimages.com/photo/forest-1392301

I was trying to think of what sense best applies to this act of growth, healing and interaction with trees. My first thought was of the sixth sense, afterall, we're talking about trees right? But then I thought it had more to do with touch, since we're feeling the vibrations of the trees. But if what we're feeling is invisible waves of energy through the air, isn't that just what sound is? But I don't think I've ever heard specific vibes off of trees... I think it goes back to what I said before, a walk in the woods really exercises all of the senses.

Comments

  1. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausFebruary 12, 2018 at 8:45 AM

    Nice reflection! I think it's touch, but as part of a synesthetic experience of "of growth, healing and interaction with trees." And why can't it be "both/and": religion and science, touch and all the other senses, etc.?
    In my view, religious sensibilities at their best are pretty good at cultivating "both/and" experiences in the convergence of apparent opposites in nature and our processing of them.

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