Today is May 16th and on this day in history… across America, people are celebrating National Love A Tree Day.
Trees were here long before us. The oldest living bristle cone pines were already ancient when Rome was just an idea. They’ve stood through plagues, wars, the rise and fall of civilizations – silent witnesses to our human drama.
When you place your hand on oak bark, you’re touching something that breathes differently than we do. Trees inhale what we exhale. They’re the other lung of the planet, operating on a timescale we can barely comprehend.
Think about it – a sequoia doesn’t worry about quarterly reports or social media. It just grows, ring by ring, year after year. There’s a wisdom in that patience. While we rush around trying to make our mark, trees just make oxygen and shelter and beauty without even trying.
The Japanese have a practice called shinrin-yoku – forest bathing. They discovered what indigenous people always knew: being among trees literally changes your body chemistry. Blood pressure drops. Stress hormones decrease. Something happens when humans reconnect with these ancient beings.
We’ve built civilizations by cutting them down. Used their bodies for our homes, our ships, our books. Yet they keep growing back, persistent in their quiet generosity.
Maybe loving a tree isn’t some hippie ritual but a recognition of our oldest companions. The ones who fed us, sheltered us, kept us warm through the ice ages. The ones who filtered the air so life could evolve beyond simple organisms.
So today, while nations argue and markets fluctuate, people across the country will look up at leaves catching sunlight or notice roots pushing through concrete. Small ceremonies of re-connection.
Trees don’t need our official day of appreciation. But perhaps we need it – this reminder that we’re part of something larger, operating on a different clock. That some things matter beyond the urgency of now. That slowing down to the pace of a growing tree might reveal truths we miss in our hurry.
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