Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Holy Rover

Home
New Visions
Six Million Leaves, Without Budging An Inch

Six Million Leaves, Without Budging An Inch

Last updated on: July 11, 2011 at 1:29 pm by Lori Erickson

Six Million Leaves, Without Budging An Inch 2011-07-11T13:29:56-06:00 Lori Erickson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Wikipedia Commons image

My husband and I have been tree shopping lately, for a pine in our front yard needs replacing. We’ve been debating the merits of different varieties. Flowering crab? Linden? Red maple? Dogwood? Who knew there were so many choices?

I’m intrigued by the way in which trees have begun to fill my consciousness. Here I’ve lived for five decades without really thinking about them, and now I can’t walk down a street without noticing them. It’s a bit like being pregnant and discovering how many other pregnant women there are out there.

And such green treasures those trees are! My neighbor’s pin oak is a monarch among

trees, straight and tall and regal (but too big for the space we have, alas). I eye another neighbor’s maple with covetousness, but when I do the math I realize I will be moldering in the grave by the time a tree planted by me would reach such a towering height.

Even more than birthing a baby, planting a tree is a leap into the future. A small

one, of course, but I am taking pleasure in thinking of those who will enjoy our tree long after we have moved to another plane of existence.

Annie Dillard has a wonderful paragraph about trees in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek:

It is amazing that trees can turn gravel and bitter salts into these soft-lipped

lobes, as if I were to bite down on a granite slab and start to swell, bud, and

flower. Trees seem to do their feats so effortlessly. Every year a given tree

creates absolutely from scratch ninety-nine percent of its living parts. Water

lifting up tree trunks can climb one hundred and fifty feet an hour; in full

summer a tree can, and does, heave a ton of water every day. A big elm in a

single season might make as many as six million leaves, wholly intricate,

without budging an inch; I couldn’t make one. A tree stands there, accumulating

deadwood, mute and rigid as an obelisk, but secretly it seethes; it splits,

sucks, and stretches; it heaves up tons and hurls them out in a green, fringed

fling. No person taps this free power; the dynamo in the tulip tree pumps out

ever more tulip tree, and it runs on rain and air.

Books

Nature

Annie Dillard

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

trees

Previous Post

July 8, 2011

Let the Mystery Be

Next Post

July 12, 2011 Welcoming the Moon

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Aging & Spirituality Amish Anabaptists Animals Apocalypse Archeological sites Art and Spirituality Awards Belgian Holy Sites birds Blessings Books Buddhism Business & Spirituality Callings Cats Celtic Cemeteries Children Christianity church Colorado Creation Death Desert Spirituality Easter Economics Education & Spirituality Egypt Episcopal Church Faith Fear Films First Nations Food Forgiveness Germany God Good & Evil Good Friday Grace Gratitude Happiness Healing Hildegard of Bingen Hinduism History Holy Rover blog Holy Sites Holy Week Horses Iceland Illness Images of God Indigenous Spiritualilty Interfaith Interfaith Dialogue Iowa Islam Israel Japan Judaism LDS Church Lent Machu Picchu Martin Luther Media Meditation Monasteries Museums Music Music and Spirituality Musings Mysticism Native American Nature New Age New Zealand Norse History/Culture/Spirituality Orthodox Paradox Paranormal Peru Philosophy Pilgrimage Poetry Politics Pop Culture Pilgrimage Sites Prayers sermons Silence Social Media Spiritual writers Spirituality and Food Spirituality and Social Media Stone Circles Thomas Merton Turkey Uncategorized Unconventional Holy Sites Utopian communities Videos Virgin Mary Wicca Work World War I Writing Zen

Select a Month August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which disciple betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of sliver?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Judas Peter Mary Magdalene Andrew