Considering the Canopy
How trees can connect us to something greater
Perhaps if I’d had indoor pets as a child, I wouldn’t have such an intimate relationship with trees.
In the long sweltering Southern California summer afternoons of my youth, when the swamp cooler gave little relief in the house, I would sit in our chinaberry tree with my nose deep in Big Red or James and the Giant Peach, bare feet dangling above the ground, tough tree bark pressing into the back of my thighs, cradling a fat black and white cat in my lap.
Although I no longer have the luxury of hanging out with my cats and reading all day, I continue to be fascinated by the beauty and majesty of trees. And I’m not alone. Throughout human history, mythical and otherworldly attributes have long been ascribed to trees.
A Lone Figure in the Desert
Take the joshua tree, for example. This spiky, otherworldy tree is Native to the Mojave Desert. Early settlers in the region are rumored to have named the tree after the Biblical prophet Joshua, seeing in the solitary trees a lone figure beckoning them across the desert to a promised land.
