The Breathing Trees
Does breath tie things together more than we know?
Over the last two years1 it has felt like a gift to discover the connections between God’s name, our breath, and how God’s name sounds like breathing as it was revealed to the Jewish people. This discovery has changed how I perceive the nearness of God to me and all people, and deepened my practice of breath prayers significantly. If I want to be reminded of the loving presence of God with me _right now_, all I have to do is breathe. There is something deeply significant about the breath of God and our breath.
Recently when it tripped across my mind that trees also breathe, something clicked.
I asked ChatGPT to explain how trees breathe:
Trees breathe in a way that's similar to humans, but they use their leaves instead of lungs. Just like we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, trees do the opposite. They take in carbon dioxide from the air through tiny openings in their leaves called stomata. With the help of sunlight and water from the ground, they turn that carbon dioxide into food and release oxygen back into the air. This process is called photosynthesis. So while we breathe in the oxygen that trees give us, trees "breathe in" the carbon dioxide we breathe out—it’s a perfect team effort!
Currently my mind isn’t big enough to comprehend the implications and possibilities of all this inter-related breathing, so I’m just going to go with a bullet list of ideas and potential connections.
We breathe, God has breath, and trees breathe.
Humans need the breath of trees in order to survive, as they are the source of our oxygen.
While we are breathing, trees are breathing at the same time. Their exhale is our inhale.
Trees take our exhale and turn it into oxygen.
A tree’s exhale is my inhale, and my exhale is a tree’s inhale. We are breathing together.
As there is a connection between human breath and God’s breath, is there also a connection between God’s breath and trees’ breath? Does God breathe through the trees too?
We are more profoundly related to nature (in this case, trees) than we realize. People like St. Francis saw this early. And with St. Francis, our wonder at God’s magnificence in creation leads naturally to praise of her Creator.
It seems that it would be deeply meaningful to take a walk in the woods, conscious of one’s own breathing while at the same time conscious of trees breathing, recognizing that somehow all together this might be God breathing as well. It’d be like an experiencing a dynamic trinity of relationships and connectivity—nature, God, humans—especially if in the presence of other people.
Regarding that meaningful walk in the woods, I begin to understand what that modern Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku is all about, known to us as forest-bathing.
Since trees aren’t the only plant that does photosynthesis and almost all green plants do, it means that even my little potted plant is breathing too (just as are blades of grass). Even my little potted plant can remind me of the immanence of God and the inter-relatedness of all things.
“The doctrine of continuous creation sees the natural world in its own integrity as pervaded, vivified, and encompassed by the Spirit of God. This means that the natural world is sacramental: it bodies forth and communicates the gracious presence of God.” Elizabeth A. Johnston, CSJ from Creation: Is God’s Charity Broad Enough for Bears?
All this makes me want to go back and re-read The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. This quote isn’t germane to breathing, but worth sharing here, “The most astonishing thing about trees is how social they are.”
That’s it friends, thank you for indulging me in some fresh musings. I hope they lift your eyes to the trees in wonder and lift your heart to God in thanksgiving and help us, well, breathe more deeply.
PS: “The Breathing Trees”…sounds like a great name for a band, doesn’t it? Well, at least there’s a song and reflection by Barbara McAfee with that title, exploring and celebrating some of the themes of this post. “I am breathing tree / tree is breathing me.”
With true humility I’m quick to admit I’m very late to this realization. Here’s someone who got there first, even if recently: “Air, Trees, and the Breath of Life”. I guarantee you these connections somehow show up in certain ancient mystics, even before they understood the science.
This was “breath”taking. Thank you for writing it!
I sit on my porch every morning and watch the light emerge through the Jacaranda trees that line my street. Their arms are raised, in worship and some mornings in giant Y’s as if they are asking. “Why?” The trees speak for me. Both praise and lament. And now to think we share breath! Wow! Thank you for your beautiful thoughts. I like this one too:
“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace…all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” Isaiah 55:12