Life withTrees
The Buddha achieved enlightenment while sitting under the Bodhi Tree, a fig tree (ficus religious). It offers shade, fruit and privacy as daughter trees grow up surrounding the original trunk and create little natural meditation cells among the trunks and branches. Reverence and care for the tree, or for special trees, is integral to spiritual practice around the world in every tradition. Thus we preserve trees which give us so many benefits. An early art class outside my home was with a local artist. The medium was pastel and I clearly remember sitting outside on the grass, pastels beside me, and looking, looking so hard at a tree. I was nine years old. Recently I joined one of the monthly Nature Journal Club outings in Berkeley, CA organized by artist and naturalist John Muir Laws. Birthday Tree, Park Street in Alameda, California. Sketched on Jan. 26, 2016. A group of about 35 people including at least half a dozen children and two women in wheelchairs met in the