Margaret Cheasebro

In this time of COVID-19 when cases of the virus skyrocket and people are urged to stay at home to reduce COVID-19's spread, it is easy to feel lonely. That sense of loneliness kept growing and growing in me until I finally made the decision to adopt a dog from the local animal shelter.

I have had Peanut, a 31-pound mixed breed who's two-and-a-half years old, for a week now. She has banished loneliness totally. I discovered after walking her on a leash for several days that the leash approach doesn't work for me. My body protested with all sorts of aches and pains. But I do have a large back yard that Peanut loves to explore. She races joyfully around the yard, which she couldn't do on a leash. She and I go out several times a day. I watch her play, and she loves to run huge circles around the yard and around me.

In my back yard I have a garden plot, empty now that freezing weather has come, and Peanut likes to sniff around in it, finding all sorts of smells that tantalize her nose. This afternoon, one of those tantalizing smells was a baby elm tree that grew between my chain link fence and the cement wall that separates my property from my neighbor's back yard. She poked her nose through the chain link as far as she could and stretched her tongue out until she managed to wrap it around the baby elm. She snagged a leaf or two and ate them with relish.

A tall elm tree grows in my neighbor's back yard, and, as most elms do, it does its best to reproduce itself. Unfortunately, this summer I found hundreds of elm sprouts in my garden, many hiding under carrot and beet leaves. I had to methodically pull them up before they grew bigger. It was an endless task. And even today, in the last half of November, I occasionally find baby elm trees taking root.

How interesting that the dog I chose to adopt from the animal shelter likes to chow down on baby elm trees. That is icing on the cake. Peanut is a friendly, lovable dog who came to me housebroken and obedient. And now I discover she likes to eat baby elm trees too. Extraordinary!

At first, I wondered how I would survive having a dog in the house, because she was triggering my asthma symptoms. Then a friend told me she'd had a similar reaction with her dogs until she shampooed them with Douxo, a chlorhexidine shampoo that is antiseptic and helps to kill bacteria on the skin of dogs and cats. I ordered it on the Internet, and it arrived today. I wasn't sure how well it would work, but I put a reluctant Peanut in a bathtub of warm water and shampooed her. She graciously put up with the shampoo, and now she smells so good. She is no longer triggering asthma symptoms, and I am so thankful to my friend who shared how well this shampoo worked for her.

How lucky can I be to have a dog who likes to eat baby elm trees and a friend who shared such helpful information with me. As Thanksgiving approaches, I am feeling so thankful for my dog and my friend! They have both made life much easier and enjoyable!

When you feel stressed, sit under a tree or walk near where there are trees. Without a doubt, in these post-election moments, we have an extra need for stress reducing activities.

Focus on the trees. Notice their bark, branches, needles or leaves, the way they sway in a gentle breeze. Hear the sounds they make such as rustling leaves or branches rubbing against each other. Listen to the birds as they flit from branch to branch, then race off to find a different tree or land in the grass to eat seeds, worms, and insects. Feel the smooth or rough consistency of tree bark as you run your hands along their trunks.

Once you've experienced all those sensory details while immersing yourself in the experience of being around trees, you may discover that you feel calmer, a little happier. Maybe you feel less stressed over what's going on in the world around you. Though you may worry about what's happening, there is seldom much you can do about it.

Never underestimate the healing power of your time around trees and other aspects of nature. Being surrounded by trees, bushes, flowers, and bodies of water helps to heal us. That may be one reason some of us like to garden and why we feel sad when gardening season is over.

Connecting with nature not only has a way of bringing healing calmness to is, but it encourages us to take care of ourselves better by walking more. Walking also helps to boost our creativity. Getting your exercise on a treadmill may be good exercise, but walking in nature does something extra to activate creative ideas. It triggers our brains to blossom with all kinds of positive impressions.

If you have a dog, when you need to generate new ideas, take your dog for a walk. It will benefit both of you. Your dog will love it, and you will prime your wellspring of ideas to gush like a fountain.

These days, as we've gone through the long season leading up to elections and are now in the post-election season with all its temporary uncertainties, we need more than ever to take time for walking. If you can walk among trees and other beautiful aspects of nature, your stress will slide away more easily. So take a walk, and let go of stress. You deserve to feel good!

Trees play such an important role in the health of our planet and of our own selves. Because of that, it's especially nice to learn that some people are promoting projects with positive results far into the future. One of those projects is happening in Singapore. It was reported in the Singapore newspaper, Mongabay, this Oct. 9. To learn more about the newspaper, go to https://news.mongabay.com. It provides news and inspiration from nature's frontline.

According to the article, between 1953 and 2018, Singapore lost nearly 90 percent of its mangrove trees to urban expansion and other human activities. To help turn that around, Singapore launched a new nature park. It covers 990 acres in an area where migratory birds stop to refuel. They fly from Russia and Alaska to Australia and New Zealand along the East Asian-Australasian flyway. It is also home to oriental hornbills, otters, crocodiles and many other species. The nature park is part of a larger effort to plant one million trees across the city-state of Singapore by 2030. The reforestation will not only add wildlife habitat, but will help sequester carbon, lower the city's temperature, and help to reduce erosion and rising sea levels, and improve living conditions for human residents.

In August 2020, the Singapore government announced the launch of the new nature park, which is called the Sungei Bulon Park Network, located in the northern part of the island. The Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve is home to smooth-coated otters, who were found there in the 1990s after they were thought to be locally extinct. It's also home to 11 of the 200 critically endangered Eye of the Crocodile trees in the world. The Sungei Buloh Park Network triples the size of the protected area and aims to protect the biodiversity of many areas, among them the Kranji marshes, the Mandai mangrove and mudflat, and the coastal Lim Chu Kang Nature Park. Within these habitats, researches have recorded 279 bird species. They include many different kinds of ecosystems. In Lim Chua Kang Nature Park are mangrove, woodland, scrubland and grassland habitats. It attracts many coastal birds, among them the gray-headed fish eagle and the baya weaver.

Thirty-five different plant species of mangroves have been found in Singapore, while in the United States, only three different species of the mangrove plant species have been found, according to geography professor Dan Friess from the National University of Singapore. He has studied mangroves for 11 years, and he heads the university's Mangrove Lab. It focuses on studying coastal wetlands in Southeast Asia.

Because of the many different species in Singapore, those mangroves have an important ecological impact. Twenty species new to science have been found by researchers in the Mandai mangroves alone. Now, visitors can view the Sungei Buloh wetlands from boardwalks and watchtowers. That will change in 2022, when they can watch migratory birds from hides near the Mandai mudflat.

In the 19th century, Singapore lost much of its primary forest to logging. A fast-growing population and rapid urban development in the 20th century caused the removal of many trees for land reclamation and to build reservoirs for water security. As a result of that development, mangrove forests, which in 1953 covered about 24.5 square miles, covered only 3.1 miles by 2018. Singapore's goal is to replace its losses by turning areas used for industry and infrastructure back into landscapes that look more natural.

Part of that effort includes the One Million Trees project launched on March 4, 2020. It involves restoring both inland and mangrove forests. The trees are coming from Singapore's tree banks, which include nurseries and trees salvaged from construction sites. Transport and housing projects could result in the removal of up to 13,000 trees over the next 15 years, but the government plans to replant one tree for every tree removed. The One Million Trees project will be placed in parks, on university grounds, rooftop gardens, roadsides and on outlying islands. The project will also create therapeutic gardens for aging people in Singapore. It is the city's goal, when the project is completed in 2030, that every household will be within a 10-minute walk of a park. It is hoped that the trees will help to cool the environment and attract butterflies, garden birds and small mammals so that biodiversity and nature can be enjoyed in an urban landscape.

Mangrove trees have characteristics that make them especially beneficial in this project. Their roots help to stop erosion by holding in the soil. They also reduce the impact of waves on the shore. They trap sediment between their roots and create their own soil. That could help coastal cities like Singapore stay above water as global warming leads to the rise of sea levels – if that rise does not occur too quickly.

Research indicates that mangroves can sequester more carbon that rainforests do. Friess said that mangrove trees can store three to five times more carbon per hectare than other forest types of trees do. A hectare equals 2.47 acres. That ability could reduce excess carbon in the atmosphere around the world where reforestation projects take place.

In the Mongabay article, Friess is quoted as saying, "In a normal forest, leaves and branches would die, fall to the forest floor, and quickly get broken down by bacteria and fungi, which releases the carbon back into the atmosphere. Mangrove soils are waterlogged so they have a different microbial community, so organic matter is not broken down and the carbon stays locked up in the soils."

A key to successful mandrake reforestation projects is to grow the right species at the right sites. For other cities, states or countries who decide to try reforestation projects, a key is to ask reforestation experts which species are the right kinds to plant in which areas.

If Singapore can carry out this bold and planet-healing project, then other places around the world with the will to do so also could create their own reforestation projects. Even on a much smaller scale, reforestation projects could make a positive difference. Trees are even more important for our health and welfare than many of us realize.

I joined two neighborhood friends in the front yard of one of their homes. We sat under a huge mulberry tree whose big green leaves spread over much of the front yard.

"When the leaves of the mulberry fall this autumn," the owner said, "they fall all at once. One day they're there, and the next day, they're on the ground."

Just as all of us humans are different and handle the changing seasons in our own ways, so trees have their own way of letting go of the leaves of spring and summer to step into autumn and winter. For them, it's built into their tree-ness to handle leaf shedding based on signals they get from nature.

For us, when we face change, whether it's seasonal change or a change in our life circumstances – a change in jobs, the loss of a loved one, a move from one place to another, a different way of doing something familiar – we often get our signals from our own fear or apprehension of facing something different.

Will we like the new job, can we handle the tasks, will other people on the job accept and respect us? How can we survive without the person we lost? Will we ever get over the grief, the loneliness, the sudden change of almost every detail of our life? Will the place we're moving to be a pleasant one surrounded by the activities and the kinds of people that we have come to expect? Why does someone want to do a particular task in a different way when we can see there is only one sensible way to handle it?

When we face change, we recognize the need to take one step at a time through all the aspects of adjusting to that change. There's no easy way to do it. We just have to move through it, putting one foot in front of the other with determination.

No matter how hard the change in life circumstances seem, we can look to trees for inspiration. No matter what happens to trees – a seasonal change, the beginning of life as a young sprout or the end of life as a dying tree – they find a way to support each other. The stump of a cut down tree continues to be nurtured by trees around it so that it remains alive. A young sprout finds itself in the protective shade of a larger tree. No matter what the seasonal change, trees see in other trees that the change is handled with innate wisdom.

As trees prepare to move into the changes brought about by cooler weather, how can we as family, friends, and neighbors help each other face changes that inevitably come to us at one time or another? A kind word, a visit, sharing a chore, keeping in touch with someone who has moved away, a smile – the simplest things help to make life a little easier during change.

As you notice trees changing this fall season, remember that change is easier when we let people know they're not alone. Mother Teresa once told people who wanted to contribute financially to her ministry that, instead, they should take time to let people in their own community know they are not alone. We're all in this together, the trees and us, and we handle change better when we know others are encouraging and supporting our various journeys.

I have a little backyard garden where I grow tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, asparagus, sweet red peppers, beets and carrots. It has been fun sharing some of my bounty with neighbors. The young neighbor family whose backyard abuts my backyard, is fun to interact with. They have two preschool kids who get so excited when I give each of them a carrot or a tomato. Sometimes their dad sends them to the fence between our yards with a couple of sweet juicy apples from one of their trees.

I sometimes think about that apple tree and how it and my garden have become a sharing conduit between my neighbors and myself. How wonderful that we can still be connected in ways that help us all feel cared about and appreciated.

I walked with friends today through the neighborhood for exercise. Seeing so many trees along the way made our walk even more beautiful and provided shade when we needed it. Trees have so much to offer us. I wanted to capture some of what they can provide in my book, Healing with Trees: Finding a Path to Wholeness. When people see me around town, they sometimes make a special effort to tell me how much that book means to them.

Trees have so much to offer, and I am delighted when people discover they too can have a connection with trees. People may enjoy a shady spot under tree branches to rest in. Or they may sense a welcoming feeling coming from certain trees. It can be an adventure to notice trees as you take a walk. One thing most people notice is how many trees there are all around us. It's fun to see what happens as you acknowledge the trees you pass and appreciate their beauty.

Sometimes that focus on trees and other plants can create a connection between you and a neighbor or someone you didn't know before. As I discovered with my garden and my neighbor's apple tree, trees and other plants have a way of helping us reach out to each other as we create loving community connections.

Sometimes when I need a little extra exercise, I walk through parts of my neighborhood. It's a great way to stretch my legs and strengthen my muscles.

There are lots of trees in the neighborhood where I live. Almost everyone has trees in their front, back or side yards. Every once in a while, one of those trees will grab my attention. From past interaction with trees, I know that means they want something from me or they have something to tell me. So I have learned to listen. It may sound strange to think of listening to trees. That kind of listening isn't done with your ears. It's done with your heart.

Often, a tree wants me to pray for it or to send it Reiki, which is a Japanese form of energy healing that promotes relaxation, rest, and other healthy things. Getting to do that is one of the joyful things about being a Reiki Master. If a tree wants Reiki, I also send Reiki to everyone and everything in the area that would like to receive it. Reiki can help to provide relaxation, rest and healing to a large area, which is a wonderful way of bringing a greater sense of peace to the neighborhood.

If a tree wants prayer, I don't usually know what it needs. I just pray that it receives whatever it needs to find healing and wholeness. I sometimes feel a rush of joy coming from the tree to me immediately after I have prayed for it. It's the tree's way of thanking me and of telling me it received benefits from the prayer.

Sometimes trees have something to tell me. Their message is always one of encouragement or support. I am amazed at how much trees feel an interconnection with us, a sense of community in which we all benefit as we support each other.

Some people don't feel anything special when they walk among trees. They may have a hard time understanding how anyone else could connect with trees. They may wonder if it's all in our heads. Perhaps they might think we have an overactive imagination or we're just a little bit crazy. But almost anyone can enjoy the shade that trees provide, the perches they offer in their branches for singing birds, the beauty they add wherever they grow.

When you walk by a tree, it might be fun to try an experiment. Using your mind, not your voice, tell the tree how beautiful you think it is. Acknowledge it by thanking it for all it provides. Then stand quietly near the tree and listen. You may hear birds sing, branches rustle in the wind, leaves swish together. But underneath those sounds, you just might sense something else, a blip of joy, a rush of love that overtakes you in a gentle way. If that happens, you just might have heard with your heart a thank you coming from that tree.

As I sat in my chiropractor's backyard waiting for him to see me, I noticed many beautiful trees growing in his yard. I saw a peach tree laden with ripe peaches, an aspen, a spruce, an elm, and blossoming sunflowers tall enough to be trees.

Do they ever wish they were a different kind of tree? I wondered. I suspect not, because the trees have such distinct personalities and tasks that are just right for them. That may seem a little silly, but I believe it's true. Ask almost anyone who spends time around trees, and they most likely will tell you that trees have their own sense of purpose and their own individuality.

As I gaze at the aspen with birds flitting in and out of its branches, I wonder how it would describe itself. Words came into my mind. Were they from the tree? From my own imagination? I don't know. If it was from my imagination, it's kind of fun to take a tree imagination journey to see what you will discover.

What I heard in my mind about the aspen tree was, "I am welcoming. I stand with open arms. When challenges come, I recognize the gift in the challenge." As I watched its quaking leaves, I sensed it had lots of experience in seeing gifts in the challenges it faces – strong winds, people wanting to cut it down, drought, extreme temperatures.

The towering spruce behind it seemed confident. As I wondered how it would describe itself, I noticed how its topmost branch pointed straight up to the sky. Trees are very good at grounding themselves deep into the Earth with their roots. They are also good at connecting upwards into the sky to the place from which they absorb rain and snow and other gifts from nature. Perhaps that connection is what made the spruce feel so confident.

The tall elm behind me standing near the backyard entrance was filled with several kinds of birds. One small bird with bluish gray feathers on its body and a white patch on top of its head grasped ridges of trunk with its feet and walked upside down toward a fork in the tree. How interesting, I thought. It trusts the tree and its surroundings well enough to walk upside down!

Just then, the chiropractor waved for me to come into his office. Perhaps on my next visit to the chiropractor, I will get to take another tree imagination journey.

If you're looking for something fun, free and entertaining to do, try taking your own tree imagination journey. It's safe and relaxing.

If you've spent time among trees, you may have enjoyed their individual shapes and colors. You might even have felt more peaceful, more connected to nature.

Trees, flowers, bushes, all kinds of plants can help us to feel more consciously aware of our connection to nature. It's easy to rush through an experience because we're so busy, but if we give ourselves time to spend with trees, we might feel calmer and more relaxed. The fiction and non-fiction books I've written about trees or with trees as a character all developed as the result of calming, healing experiences I've had around trees. Those experiences told me there's a great deal more to trees and their abilities than many of us realize.

Though some people perceive plants as incommunicative, insensitive and in a vegetative state, more scientists and biologists are coming to recognize they are much more than that. One of the most recent books about this growing awareness, The Incredible Journey of Plants, was written by plant neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso, who studies the intelligence and behavior of plants. He is the director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology (LINV) in Florence, Italy.

An article about his book appeared April 5, 2020 in a United Kingdom publication, The Guardian. To see it, go to https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/05/smarty-plants-are-our-vegetable-cousins-more-intelligent-than-we-realise.

He has studied how plants are able to problem solve, memorize, communicate, and how they have social lives. Unlike humans, plants do not have a brain. Instead, Mancuso said, they convey that brain-type function throughout their entire structure. They are, in a sense, one huge brain. In addition, they are aware of themselves and of what is around them. In The Guardian article, Mancuso is quoted as saying, "My personal opinion is that there is no life that is not aware of itself. For me, it's impossible to imagine any form of life that is not able to be intelligent, to solve problems."

Plants are more sensitive than animals, he says. "That is not an opinion," he told The Guardian. "This is based on thousands of pieces of evidence. We know that a single root apex is able to detect at least 20 different chemical and physical parameters, many of which we are blind to."

In his book, Mancuso explains that plants are social and communicative both in their structures above ground and through their roots. Other life forms have subtle electromagnetic fields, and plants are able to detect them. They warn of danger, try to scare off predators, and attract pollinating insects by using chemicals and scents. When caterpillars chew on corn, for example, the corn sends out a chemical distress signal that is responded to by parasitic wasps who follow that signal and attack the caterpillars.

Plants detect sound and vibration too. That's how they find running water, which they need to survive. Because they have such a slow pace of life, it's easy for people to overlook the intelligence of plants. They have learned how to survive for centuries in sometimes stark environments.

The idea that humans have reached the highest form of life on Earth is a very dangerous idea, Mancuso believes. "When you feel yourself better than all the other humans or other living organisms, you start to use them," he told The Guardian. "That is exactly what we've been doing."

Though Mancuso has his detractors, more and more botanists are embracing the study of plant neurobiology. People are becoming more open to the idea of plants as intelligent species that have their own ways of behaving.

The next time you walk among trees or other plants, consider that you may be sharing space with some amazing aspects of nature. If you take time to meditate among trees or other plants, you might discover that it's easier to maintain the quiet peacefulness of a meditative state.