i’ve been observing the habits of modern human beings and the responses of this living world to our behaviors for years. and i’ve come to the conclusion that we’re basically S.O.L. yes, policy change is critical and must be taken immediately, vigorously and at massive scale. but planting trees is one of the single most powerful things we can do as individuals, families and communities. right now.

we’ve pretty much created a shit-storm here on planet earth and the “powers that be” seem hell-bent on taking us and everything here down with them.

i’m not saying it’s totally hopeless. yet. i am saying that there is a huge dichotomy between reality and the fiction we are being sold. reality is hard to face. the facts that we are losing species at 100-1,000 times the normal rate, destroying around 80,000 acres of rainforest each day and the production of plastics is projected to double in the next fifteen years, are absolutely mind-boggling. that’s just a small fraction of the statistics we face.

it’s more than we can comprehend, really.

it’s more than i even know how to begin to hold. so, after months of trying amidst the resurgence of bone-deep anxiety about the future, i allowed a switch in my brain to flip over. i let go of hope. i gave up my story that we can turn things around, not only because we are beyond that point but because it’s saner and, strangely, more productive to consider a whole new way of being human. in some ways, letting go of life as i have known it (and thought it would always be) has been liberating. i’ve had to let my heart break more than it has ever broken before.

the thing is, these are heart-breaking times.

perhaps that is exactly the point. we all need to let our hearts break – open. it’s the first step we can take to meeting what we’ve created. deep inside we know that numbing ourselves to the overwhelming situation we’ve co-created, at least condoned, is a huge part of what allows us to continue this global mayhem. however, when overwhelmed by feelings associated with trauma (and considering the possibility of extinction is pretty much the most traumatizing thing i know of), we stop thinking clearly. we lose access to our creativity. we maintain “business as usual.” life becomes transactional rather than relational.

but this is not business as usual.

the fact that we attune our daily way of living to business says so much about how far we have come from our hearts. we’ve paid our attention to the wrong things. we’ve spent our time doing pretty much everything, from getting our nails done to driving our cars to the store, without considering the consequences. we’ve taken a huge detour from our humanity. and the fact that any of us can make it through the day without falling into a heap on the sidewalk or losing it at the grocery store is actually what’s insane.

there are things, however, we can do to recover what we’ve lost in ourselves.

basically, humans are good at heart. even here in the hot Paris summer, where the reputation for rudeness runs as high as the temperature, i’ve met wonderful humans. i’ve had heartfelt conversations with locals, immigrants and ex-pats. i was forgiven for my broken French, received with huge smiles and hugs, and invited to sing with street musicians by the canal. we love to love. we are hard-wired for creativity and joy and connection.

we just have to remember to give ourselves permission to feel and express our grief, fear and rage. we have to create spaces to gather and be held in the overwhelming experience of letting go of the control to which we hold so tightly. we have to unlearn and relearn. we have to cry, scream, stomp and be willing to look crazy. that may be one of the sanest, most productive things we can do.

so, what does all of this have to do with planting trees?

when we allow ourselves to finally fall apart, we can rest in the deep love we feel for Life Itself. we allow ourselves to be held by the gravitational hug of this planet. we come home to who we really are and let ourselves be seen and heard and held by others. we peel away the layers of perceived protection and estrangement, and let the fresh, new skin of our true selves breathe and feel the breeze. while we still can.

the thing is, trees, flowers, hugs and wild spaces are some of our greatest lifelines.

not only do they support our ability to survive in this fragile slice of live-ability on earth, they reconnect us to what is real. when we allow ourselves to feel how disconnected we have become, we remember how fragile and beautiful we all really are. that we are connected to everything around us. that we are not separate from it.

plant a tree and you feel something awaken inside.

plant another and a seed of remembrance is planted in your heart. and, as you walk the earth, away from the noise and distraction in your workday world (or in your head), allowing your hands to touch the living soil, smelling the pungency of fresh roots, something starts to crack open. the hard shell of your forgetting splits. in this way, you start to remember that none of the things you thought were so important matter as much as this moment of living. you start to come home to yourself… maybe even for the first time.

i invite you to do something which may just help soften the blow we’ve inflicted on ourselves. plant a tree. or ten, or hundreds, or maybe even a million. it requires little or no permission and it can be scaled to the area in which you live. the results are overwhelmingly positive. get involved and recover your true humanity. before it’s too late.

ayreÁnna Ross spends most of her time contemplating the question “what if what is happening to us is also for us?” and writing about how we humans can create more loving relationships with each other, ourselves, the Earth and all beings. interwoven with all that and the love she has for quiet time, her husband and her biological and chosen family, she also cherishes time with others in deep conversations, music-making and co-activating community visions.