We made it through January, which feels like quite an accomplishment. It’s taken me a while to figure out what might be helpful for us to focus on throughout the month of February. I’ve found myself at a loss for words for all the reasons I know I don’t need to describe to each of you, who are experiencing your own emotional upheaval. 

But in the past week, I remembered that several years ago, I found a book, The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate, by Peter Wohlleben. It was full of wisdom about how trees live in community with each other and with the entire ecosystem they inhabit. It turns out that, like the celebrities in US WEEKLY, trees—they’re just like us! Or, perhaps, we humans need to be more like them.

We are witnessing in real time how Minnesotans are taking care of their neighbors and demonstrating what true community looks like. They understand what trees have known for centuries. Peter Wohlleben shares this in chapter 3 “Social Security:”

It is obviously not in a forest’s best interest to lose its weaker members. If that were to happen, it would leave gaps that would disrupt the forest’s sensitive microclimate with its dim light and high humidity. If it weren’t for the gap issue, every tree could develop freely and lead its own life. I say “could” because beeches, at least, seem to set a great deal of store by sharing resources.

…[beech] trees synchronize their performance so that they are all equally successful. And that is not what one would expect. Each beech tree grows in a unique location, and conditions can vary greatly in just a few yards. The soil can be stony or loose. It can retain a great deal of water or almost no water. It can be full of nutrients or extremely barren. Accordingly, each tree experiences different growing conditions; therefore, each tree grows more quickly or more slowly and produces more or less sugar or wood, and thus you would expect every tree to be photosynthesizing at a different rate.

And that is what makes the research results so astounding. The rate of photosynthesis is the same for all the trees. The trees, it seems, are equalizing differences between the strong and the weak. Whether they are thick or thin, all members of the same species are using light to produce the same amount of sugar per leaf. This equalization is taking place underground through the roots. There’s obviously a lively exchange going on down there. Whoever has an abundance of sugar hands some over; whoever is running short gets help. 

When trees grow together, nutrients and water can be optimally divided among them all so that each tree can grow into the best tree it can be. If you “help” trees by getting rid of their supposed competition, the remaining trees are bereft. They send messages out to their neighbors in vain because nothing remains but stumps. Every tree now muddles along on its own, giving rise to great differences in productivity.

Their wellbeing depends on their community, and when the supposedly feeble trees disappear, the others lose as well. When that happens, the forest is no longer a single closed unit.

Everyone suffers.

He concludes the chapter with this:

I have learned just how powerful a community of trees can be. “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” Trees could have come up with this old craftsperson saying. And because they know this intuitively, they do not hesitate to help each other out.

So, this month we will practice Vrksasana, tree pose, as a reminder that we must remain rooted in community and ready to support those who need us. In addition, we must be able to accept support when we need it ourselves.

You’ve all heard me say this in class, but when we are in a yoga room and are holding tree pose, we can visualize roots growing through the soles of our feet and connecting us to everyone else in the room and far beyond those four walls. When you come into the pose, picture your favorite tree—mine is a beautiful birch tree in my old Bethesda neighborhood—its tall, white trunk reminds me of my mom. Draw strength from your roots to your crown, and then share that strength with everyone around you. 

Nature has a way of reminding us of what’s important, essential, and good. So many of the yoga poses we practice are derived from the natural world. There's a reason for that. Yoga is collective liberation and collective care. So let's be yoga.