The grove of maples

Trees are different.  From the moment it sprouts until the day it dies, a tree stays fixed in the same spot.  Its roots are nearer than anything else to the heart of the earth, and its crown is nearer to the sky.  Sap courses through it from top to bottom, from bottom to top.  It expands and contracts according to daylight.  It waits for rain, it waits for sun, it waits for one season and then another, it waits for death.  Not one of the things that enable it to live depends on its will.  It exists and that’s all.  Now do you know why trees are so good to stroke?  Because they stand so staunchly, because their breathing is so slow and so serene and so very deep.

~ Susanna Tamaro

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