Go Hug a Tree! The Great Fitz Tree Hugging Walk Celebrates National Tree Day through Relationships
Go Hug a Tree! The Great Fitz Tree Hugging Walk Celebrates National Tree Day through Relationships
It's National Tree Day and Christine Whelan greets a range of tree huggers in a circle at the Fitzpatrick Trailhead. “I’m always surprised when people go along with my silly ideas,” she notes, smiling. Twenty five people have come together to hug trees. But despite Christine’s sheepishness, it doesn’t seem odd at all.
Standing in a circle, we follow instructions from her friend and colleague from the Pictou County Forest School, Maya, and pick up a rope. She asks us to think about how we are all interconnected as we walk into the woods. She confesses that she normally likes to hike hard and fast, but today, we will be taking time to slow down and connect.
We file into the woods, walking through the yellow birch and sugar maple. Just into the trail, we stop and Maya instructs us to find a tree to connect with. The group - ranging from preschool to elementary aged kids, to teens, parents and grandparents - looks around. One by one, they go to the tree that called them, and give it a hug. A long hug. There is whispering, then silence. And the trees hug us back.
We gather again and continue walking. Christine, a mom of three and a local organizer with For Our Kids, shares she finds solace in the 4 km trail, which she walks at least a couple of times a week. “I come with my friend at 6am on Sunday mornings. Because we’re moms, and that’s when we have time.”
It’s clear this forest knows her and her familiarity with it is also evident. Her family follows suit. I watch her daughter join friends to walk tight rope style on a tree that has fallen over a brook that runs through the trail, first cautious then proud of their feat. There is laughter and joy. The spirit of the forest feels alive and grateful to have company.
The Fitzpatrick trail was one of many hit hard during Post Tropical Storm Fiona four years ago. Climate change is leading to rising ocean temperatures, giving hurricanes more energy to increase in strength and destruction. Fiona brought winds that destroyed nearby homes and highways, toppled trees and left some residents without electricity for weeks. It resulted in flooding, gas shortages and huge economic repercussions; and it also had a mental health, emotional and social impact. When beach and trail access was severed due to infrastructure loss and downed trees, volunteers mobilized quickly, spending countless hours working to restore trails, including this one.
As we walk along the trail, Christine apologizes for “not being political enough”. She says she was never one for writing letters or petitions. But the activity seems more than political to me - more like transcendental. In a time when our relationship with the earth is cut off and strained, finding genuine connection with the natural world - and each other - is almost radical.
The Fitzpatrick Trail is in Mi’kmaq traditional territory and I think of Msit No'kmaq - All My Relations - a concept that teaches that we are kin - from the winged to the crawling, to the swimming to the four legged to the two legged. And, we have a responsibility to each other. To take care of each other like we take care of our family. Do I take care of the trees the way I take care of my daughter? If I did, what would our world be like?
I think about the time and attention it takes to be in relationship with the earth and each other, how slowing down, like we are today, deeply grounds us in our interconnectedness and pushes our collective action to work for a better future.
In a closing circle, Christine reflects on her hopes for bringing us together. “I believe that when people love something, they tend to take better care of it.”
Don’t tell Christine, but tree hugging and fostering loving relationships - with each other and the earth - in a time of disconnectedness, extraction and destruction, may be one of the most political actions we can take.
Text by Jackie McVicar, Atlantic Organizer with For Our Kids. Photos by Christine Whelan - see more pictures and read her blog at www.thejoyfulactivist.ca
