The language of the forest is spoken softly to us every day. What it says and what we chose to hear and listen to is another saga. The two are intermingled. We humans, as a small equation in the overall aspect of growth and greenery more often than not, have chosen to ignore that which is murmured to us whether it be from the singing firs that reside on peaks of mountain ranges or the hushed silences that echo volumes beneath the elderly cypress of our swamps. The lolly lobby pines that grow in our sandy sub tropics and the mammoth growth of canopy in our tropical rain forests sometimes yell, sometimes whisper. We do not listen.
I am the keeper of the wind and the eagle say the firs. I have guarded the slopes of these mountains for eons. As with all things, I live and die in cycles that regulate my health and growth. I dry and burn that new growth may once again flourish and new generations may raise their young. My filtering abilities allow for clean air and water. My balance is delicate and does not need to be “managed” as I have done well for hundreds of years.
I am the sandy pine that controls erosion. My needles fall gently to the earth and cover the ground to hold in moisture. I house Raptores and insects, give shelter to small animals and allow solitude of mind and rejuvenation of spirit to the passing visitor. I too live and die in cycles as old as the earth, cycles that should not be controlled anymore so than the natural ebb and flow of the tides that surround me.
Forests also cry - as the acid rains attack and the leaves and bark react, as new growth is twisted and sickly yellow, as one by one limbs grow then become stunted and then die. They cry for us and our offspring for they have first spoken and then given their all but we did not heed their words. As the forests live and die, so do we.
If we really understood the forest's language, what would it tell us? “I am the giver of life, the keeper of the wind’s song, the majestic cloak for the lands, the filter of life giving water, the barometer of all life on earth.”
The forests speak volumes; we do not listen. |
