Tree Energy

"Trees provide a gateway into a wider world of spirit which can help us find our place in the “web of life” and its timeless mysteries. Trees provide multiple pathways to tap into this web for magical and spiritual purposes, as well as to simply embrace and enhance life. Like music, trees speak to something deep and primal within us. They can help us open our souls to the power and spirit of earth’s rhythms. They can help us harvest the fruit of our spiritual journey and find the seeds of our future."

Excerpted from: Whispers from the Woods by Sandra Kynes

Only on quiet moments can you talk to yourself and reach down to the depth of your soul - a necessary exercise to reacquaint ourselves with our life and where we fit within this web of existence. It's difficult to do this specially if you are a city dweller living in a congested noisy neighborhood. Most housing communities though have parks or open areas for recreation and usually these areas have trees.

I have a favorite tree that suited my needs for resting and sometimes for meditation. It is an acacia tree and just one of the big acacia trees that grew in the park. I do my meditations when I feel low, depressed, and lately when I got the cold virus.

Sitting on the tree's biggest root, I imagine fresh oxygen-rich air entering my nostrils as I inhale slowly, deeply and then exhale slowly while counting from 1 to 10. This is my prelude to meditation, the relaxation stage. If the purpose of the meditation is for healing, I imagine myself sitting cross-legged inside a golden pyramid with a hole at the top. Looking at the sun, I try to direct the rays into my pyramid, the rays passing through its hole. Inside the pyramid, the rays are turned to a ball of light which would enter my head and slowly course down my body to light everything that is dark inside (darkness represents negative energy or disease). The light would exit out of my pores. I ended my meditations with a request from the big tree for a share of its positive energy, and everything I asked is through our Lord, Jesus Christ.

There are times I used the tree as a 'sounding board' to evaluate results of past activities or goals. After doing the relaxation exercise, I stare at the green leafy trees across from where I sat, I think about what happened for the past days, its effect on me and on my environment. I somehow feel that everything will be alright after such talk with the tree.

1. Trees produce Oxygen. "A mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year. On average, one tree produces nearly 260 pounds of oxygen each year." - Environment Canada, Canada's environmental agency.

2. Trees clean air. "A single mature tree can absorb carbon dioxide at a rate of 48 pounds per year and release enough oxygen back into the atmosphere to support two human beings. One acre of trees annually consumes the amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to that produced by driving an average car for 26,000 miles. That same acre of trees also produces enough oxygen for 18 people to breathe for a year. " - New York Times.

3. Trees Control Noise Pollution. Trees muffle city noise. Trees planted around the house or in strategic places in the neighborhood deter noise coming from the highways or from people congested areas.

4. Trees clean the soil. Trees can filter sewage and other soil pollutants and reduce the effect of animal wastes and clean roadside spills and water runoff into streams.

5. Trees Shade and Cool. Air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide are absorbed by trees, chemically processed and then released back as oxygen. Trees lower air temperature and intercept airborne particles too.

Can you imagine how lonely and barren-looking a place is without trees? With the trees come the birds of many kinds, the insects, the animals, and the human beings. People come to jog, walk, or just commune with nature.

Such a boring world without trees don't you think.