Mimicking Nature: Eastern White Pine

The native pine to Michigan that is a strong and gentle giant in our forests has much to teach us.

I remember it all so clearly. Just a few months after having my daughter, the days were bitter cold, the holidays had passed and I was just emerging mentally from the early days post-birth and the grand transition into a new chapter of my life. At that time I had odd dreams from the hormones and shifting anxieties of the year (COVID was just emerging as a thing). As the snow beat against the windows that January night, I fell into my dreamy state after my daughter had fallen asleep. In our cozy nook together I drifted into a a moment where I went to a white pine on our land. The tree was tall, strong, and clearly a mother. It felt like she called me to her. In the dream, I went to sit at the base of her trunk. I had never noticed this tree on our land and when I woke I knew I had to find her.

---