Another Tree. A Moment. Share. Wisdom
"A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees. (William Blake, Proverbs of Hell)
My dear Friend,
you're a Redwood. Beautiful, tall, proud, huge. No one really cares about you. They all are going for the small Wanaka tree a bit further. You don't care. I like you, I wanted to climb you from the first time, when I saw you the first time. I went by a hundred times without climbing you. You kept standing, waiting for me. Time passed. I got sad/depressed. I couldn't climb you. I had no more confidence in myself. You kept waiting for me.
Finally, after 5 month the day came. I decided to sleep outside in the park under another Redwood to climb you the other morning directly for sunrise. I met some friends on the way and told them on the way that I want to sleep outside under a tree. They felt sad for me, they invited me to sleep on their couch, instead seeing it as an adventure. I luckily didn't take their offer.
In the morning, after a cold night but a beautiful sunrise. I finally climbed you for the first time for sunrise. I climbed in shoes and with my phone to take some pictures from the top, to post them later. To be cool?
It was just beautiful, concentrating completely on climbing you but it took longer than expected. I was already too late for work, so I decided it doesn't matter anymore and went to the Parkrun at 8 am next by, because I like it more and it makes me happier than 18.50$. I started fast and was in first or second position and felt strong. Maybe, I can win for my ego. I lost my phone and went back. Someone had picked it up and brought it back. I picked it up. I was on the end of the field, behind an old man walking, a young kid, a father and his daughter running together. All just enjoying it. I started again, just to enjoy the run.
I climbed you a second time in the dawn. I climbed you with an old friend, who stayed here in Wanaka with me for the last 5 month, helped me a lot during this time and never gave up on me.
We climbed you after watching a beautiful and inspiring Mountain Film Festival. I was stocked and motivated to show you to my friends but only one wanted to join me for that easy adventure, just so easy to reach. One friend, the oldest here, was enough to share with you. It brought back all the good memories I made, even so I couldn't enjoy it that moment. He showed me that if I'm brave, I not only can sit on your top but stand. We both came down, really happy. He was happy that I convinced him and I was happy to have shown him something, completely free.
The third time I shared you in the afternoon sun with a new friend, not even knowing his name at that time but down for an adventure from the first moment. We climbed up barefoot without phones. He told me cool stories, like that he worked on a ship going from Alaska all the way down to Southern California, hiking the West Coast Trail, and diving in Hawaii, it all sounds cooler than climbing a tree but at the moment. He shared his other adventures and let me dream. On the way back, we met two new friends in the park and joined them slacklining for a while and sharing experiences.
Fourth time. The world changed. Self-isolation in New Zealand. Storm with hail, rain and cold. My old friends who wanted to climb you today finally came to the tree with, eating a 5$ Domino Pizza in the car, before they always ate healthier than me. The world changed. I couldn't believe it. I climbed you alone in the rain, while the others were sitting in their car eating their pizza. Saying it is dangerous in these conditions but you've seen worth and me too and we both are still here. You gave me trust and I climbed. The wind and the rain around me, barefoot, cared by your branches. I made it pretty dry to the top. The wind and the rain were all around me. I enjoyed it more than any pizza in a car because I felt alive. I saw the blue sky ahead and climbed down. When I reached the ground the storm was gone.
Fifth time. Midnight. I was cold maybe 4/5 C and dark, but I have to climb you this time. I'm scared, not to climb you in the dark but how the world has changed in such a short glimpse of time. You don't care. I climbed you barefoot, without a headlamp, without a phone. Completely alone in the dark. No, not alone. You are here. From the top, I can see everything around us. You're so high and I'm so small. I can see the galaxy above us, we are so, so small. Just, a glimpse in the universe. Your seat on top is not pointing to the boring town but to the lake, to the mountains. Looking in that direction, I can enjoy freedom and the beauty of nature.
You have been here for hundred years, always standing on the same spot. You never left. You have never seen anything else. I travelled the world, have seen, heard and talked a lot. I'm still so young and stupid compared to you, what you've seen and heard and experience on this one spot.
I climbed you through different times, conditions and I always took different routes. I came with friends and alone. Sad, excited, scared, sad. I always had to climb you with all my focus and came back to the ground more relaxed and happy.
everything comes and goes, but I can always come back to you! Kia ora.
I hoped to come one more time to show you to a friend who asked to climb you for the first time but haven't done it. It takes time. You can wait, you have time. I'm not sure about us, but I trust and keep waiting...
One of the most inspiring and a famous story of 1990s is about Julia Butterfly Hill spending 2 years in a redwood tree:
"In the late 1990s, environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill spent two years living in a redwood tree she named "Luna." Her goal was to save it from being cut down by a logging company. She succeeded both literally and mythically. Luna was spared from death, as was a surrounding three-acre swath of trees. Hill became an inspiring symbol of artful, compassionate protest.
Later she told Benjamin Tong in the DVD "The Taoist and the Activist":
"So often activism is based on what we are against, what we don't like, what we don't want. And yet we manifest what we focus on. And so we are manifesting yet ever more of what we don't want, what we don't like, what we want to change. So for me, activism is about a spiritual practice as a way of life. And I realized I didn't climb the tree because I was angry at the corporations and the government; I climbed the tree because when I fell in love with the redwoods, I fell in love with the world. So it is my feeling of 'connection' that drives me, instead of my anger and feelings of being disconnected."
Posted in Extinction Rebellion Australia"
The Legacy of Luna, Julia Butterfly Hill; Website: https://www.juliabutterflyhill.com/
Talk about Courage (french original coming from cour: heart. Courage instead of bravery only happens if we come against fear, overwhelming and our anxiety.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UvLVMXfRGI)
If I were a tree, I would have no reason to love humans...
"Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life...
"Fancy cutting down all those beautiful trees ... to make pulp for those bloody newspapers, and calling it civilization" (Winston Churchill, remarking his son during a visit in Canada in 1929)
A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live." (Hermann Hesse)
Let's climb a tree - Nihilism
Books:
The Wild Trees - Richard Preston
The Legacy of Luna - Julia Butterfly Hill
Movies:
Takayna (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=takayna+patagonia)
Run with the Ghost of Giants (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbnDD7VaOyM)
Treeline (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCEaYInJbos)
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