Thank you to everyone who joined our inaugural Nature Connections Book Club to discuss The Hidden Life of Trees.
For anyone who couldn’t join us live, a summary of our discussions and details of our next meetup are below.
Help Us Shape the Nature Connections Book Club
The Nature Connections Book Club is YOUR community space. We’d love to grow it in a way that works for you. To help us do that, please take two minutes to complete the survey below to help guide future sessions and vote for our upcoming books.
Your Thoughts on... The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate- Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben.
Overall, this community really enjoyed the book, describing it as powerful, seismic, an awakening and a wonderful “inTREEduction” to the hidden life of trees. It was a refreshing confirmation of the collaboration possible within communities of trees and a fascinating exploration of their unique aliveness, experiences and memory.
We took a deep dive into its use of anthropomorphic language. Some of us really enjoyed this use of language as a reminder of our connection to trees and all Nature. Others celebrated this as a valuable communication tool but cautioned on the importance of remaining close to what science can demonstrate and not straying too far into fairytales. We talked about how we can only understand the world from a human perspective and that the book uses anthropomorphism to help us better relate and connect to trees. The book’s popularity is likely due in part to Wohlleben's language and making this connection accessible to so many people. We wondered if trees could talk about us, would they use 'tree-morphic' language?
We imagined a world where the book was essential reading for those who care for trees, particularly in urban environments. Would this change our approach to planting and caring for them?
Lastly, we considered how this book relates on a smaller scale to our lives. Do plants lead similar lives to trees, and if so is our houseplant truly happy or are we depriving them of the vibrant community they might find out in the world?
Taking Your Book into Nature
This book club is about building a connection to Nature through literature. A key part of this book is about building a relationship of reciprocity with Nature. Whether you already have a reciprocal relationship with Nature or this is a new concept for you, we invite you to try your own, new reciprocal practice.
During the session, we discussed asking permission before harvesting, litter picking, and providing water to plants as examples of ways we can give back to Nature. You may wish to try one of these, look for ideas within the book, or think of your own practice to suit your lifestyle.
Our Next Book:
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Wednesday 17 July at 7pm BST, 2pm EDT & 11am PDT
We can’t thank everyone enough who came along and contributed to this session. If you’d like to join the discussion, share your thoughts with us at learning@treesisters.org or join our next book club meet-up through the link below.
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