“Here in these deep city lights, a girl could get lost tonight.: from Sarah Bareilles’s City cuts into the heart of what the city represents in the world we occupy and the importance of finding those spaces where nature is in its full magnificence.

There are many ways to understand the preciousness of nature but none greater than to feel the spirit of a poem that speaks with clarity and intention.

The Heart of the Tree

 

What does he plant who plants a tree?

He plants a friend of sun and sky;

He plants the flag of breezes free;

The shaft of beauty, towering high.

He plants a home to heaven anigh

For song and mother-croon of bird

In hushed and happy twilight heard —

The treble of heaven’s harmony —

These things he plants who plants a tree.

 

What does he plant who plants a tree?

He plants cool shade and tender rain,

And seed and bud of days to be,

And years that fade and flush again;

He plants the glory of the plain;

He plants the forest’s heritage;

The harvest of a coming age;

They joy that unborn eyes shall see —

These things he plants who plants a tree.

 

What does he plant who plants a tree?

He plants, in sap and leaf and wood,

In love of home and loyalty

And far-cast thought of civic good —

His blessing on the neighborhood

Who in the hollow of His hand

Holds all the growth of all our land —

A nation’s growth from sea to sea

Stirs in his heart who plants a tree.

Henry Cuyler Bunner(1855 – 1896)

 Plant something today and allow nature to play its part in the cycle of the unfolding of your life.
lots of Love,

Melanie