Tree Wisdom

Discover how all trees can mirror us, teach us, and heal us.

As author Alice Peck reflected on the maple tree in her backyard, she began to notice and then study its intricacies and changes. This became her regular meditation and inspiration. In Tree Wisdom, Alice shares what she has learned from that maple tree, and from the trees all around us. Every tree tells a complete and ongoing story—from its powerful taproots to the birds that alight on its fragile high branches. Like us, trees feel and react to their environment, and communicate with us in subtle but distinct ways. They evolve along a much more protracted timetable than humans. Alice explores trees from four perspectives: their roots—wisdom and understanding; their branches—symbols and rituals; their leaves—healing and science; and their seeds—transformation and spirituality. All of these elements show us how, although they live outside us, trees offer a path to our inner selves. Filled with insights from botany to poetry, ecology to mythology, and herbalism to sacraments, Tree Wisdom explores the ways these grounded yet soaring entities can steady and move us, teach and transform us, inspire and comfort us.