I am going through my archives, and I found a water-stained poster I made in May 1993 (3rd grade) with a song I wrote about trees. I still halfway remember the dirge-like tune. I was in love with trees thanks to my older cousin who loved them too and the early childhood environmental education we each received. I know I can’t keep everything in my archives, so I’m copying the song here for posterity. Reading the lyrics now I can see that felt some connection to them and my ancestors as a wrote. I used the word comfort a lot, and trees do still comfort me. You can decide how profound the song is. 🙂
Refrain:
Full of laughter, full of sorrow,
trees, trees.
Got to save them, got to love them,
trees, trees.
Without their comfort, without their life,
trees, trees
Where’s the world, where’s the feeling?
Trees, trees.
The world so bright and beautiful,
with trees, yes, with trees.
Their shade, their comfort,
their tender loving care.
Where would the world be, child,
just where?
Refrain
Their wise old souls, their long trunks;
just got to believe them,
yes, just got to believe them.
Refrain
Air, yes, fresh smelling air.
Without trees, without trees–
no air, no air.
Got to have air, yes got to have air.
Refrain
Trees, trees, trees, trees,
what would we do without trees?
No knowledge no air,
no shade, no comfort.
Trees, trees.
My first email address was treehugger18@juno.com. I was never ashamed to be an environmentalist, or to outright hug trees in public! Randomly I was assigned the number 18 by the email company, and it ended up becoming a number that is a big part of my life and carries special meaning.
I know even more now about the plight of the world’s trees. If you are so inclined, donate to one of these tree-planting orgs. http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/ and https://www1.plant-for-the-planet.org/. A Chinese proverb is attributed with the multilayered saying, “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.” This more recent quote sums up one aspect of the attitudes of many enthralled with the electronic technology available today and hints at the dangers associated with disregard for the natural and fundamental aspects of life (basically what I was writing about in my song!
Image descriptions: First, the author stands smiling in a cowry-shell tank top in front of a wetland river with trees in the background. Second, a green graphic featuring the words “Imagine if trees gave off wifi signals, we would be planting so many trees and we’d probably save the planet too. Too bad they only produce the oxygen we breathe.”
Blog from the Belly 