Happiness often eludes us because we overlook the life lessons trees teach.
Over the years, the trees around Lake Athens have continued to remind me of these timeless lessons, in every season.
Why not soak up the happy habits of trees and plant them in your soul?
Why trees live
Did you know that trees share nutrients in a way that creates longevity even in a severe drought?
Forests thrive because sick members feed and care for each other.
Don’t ask a tree who it should care for.
They connect where they are.
Even when a tree is cut down, root systems stay alive for years and shoots reappear long after we are gone.
“At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.”
— Job 14:7
Trees can survive after they are cut down.
They connect deep in the turf.
An arborist told me that tree branches grow until they touch a neighboring tree. It’s their sense of not crowding the air.
So, they stop stretching and thicken their base.
Trees that don’t grow healthy roots don’t connect.
Like loners, they suffer from isolation.
Why trees last
After the Texas Freeze in February 2021, disease and beetles attacked two of my trees. One died, or appears to have died, and the other fought back valiantly.
The difference? My arborist said, “survival instinct.”
- Oaks have bitter tannins in their bark.
- Willows produce salicylic acid (precursor of aspirin).
- Pines pump protective chemicals through sap.
“It takes an hour or so before defensive compounds reach the leaves to spoil the pest’s meal. Trees live their lives in the really slow lane, even when they are in danger. But this slow tempo doesn’t mean that a tree is not on top of what is happening in different parts of its structure.”
— Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees, p. 6
Survival systems around trees originate from the hand of God. And when we see them every day, trees remind us of God’s goodness, protection, and care. The forest and all living things on earth don’t exist without God’s doing.
“The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon. It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.”
— Ps 74:16-17
No accident could produce a complex and orderly world of beauty.
If the location of the Earth relative to the Sun, Moon, and other planets is slightly off, the trees and you and I are not here. A foundational principle of survival is faith. Faith that grows deep and is nurtured over long seasons and all seasons like a well-rooted tree.
Why trees thrive
“Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.”
— Gen 2:9
Trees know their source. It’s not themselves.
It’s the nutrients from…
- water
- sun
- soil
Trees remind us why we are awake for a few years on earth.
Do what they do.
- Clean the air
- Provide shade
- Produce fruit
Is there a better way to happiness?
Stories like this are part of the reflections I write about life, resilience, and purpose explored on my About Stephen Blaising page.
This sentence jumped off the page at me – “No accident could produce a complex and orderly world of beauty”…. Huge thought in one short concise sentence. Going to think more about it and copy to my journal.
Thanks for your comment Jeff. Truly, a point I never see countered by naturalists.