Gratitude #5B - Trees

Although I am glad I am not a tree, I am grateful for trees nonetheless. They are one of man's best friends, one of our earth's greatest resources, and some of our greatest beauties. (Trees also provide a bounteous supply of metaphors.) I am thankful my father instilled in me a wonder and love of trees. In every home my father has lived in, he beautifies it by planting trees, trees, trees.

Please enjoy these photos and thoughts regarding trees from Time.


"Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life."
- Hermann Hesse, Wandering



"It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanates from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit."
- Robert Louis Stevenson



"Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets. To plant a pine, one need only own a shovel."
- Aldo Leopold




"Of all man's works of art, a cathedral is greatest. A vast and majestic tree is greater than that."
- Henry Ward Beecher