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I came across the following essay about “preacher trees” from Hermann Hesse and thought I’d share it with you along with some favorite photos of trees I’ve taken in my travels. Enjoy!
“For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves.”
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“And even more I revere them when they stand alone.”
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“They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche.”
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“In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfil themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves.“
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“Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree.”
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“When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured.“
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“And every young farm boy knows that the hardest and noblest wood has the narrowest rings, that high on the mountains and in continuing danger the most indestructible, the strongest, the ideal trees grow.
Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.“
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“A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.“
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“A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.“
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“When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.“
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“A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the wind at evening. If one listens to them silently for a long time, this longing reveals its kernel, its meaning. It is not so much a matter of escaping from one’s suffering, though it may seem to be so. It is a longing for home, for a memory of the mother, for new metaphors for life. It leads home. Every path leads homeward, every step is birth, every step is death, every grave is mother.“
![](https://deborahjbrasket.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/dscn0123.jpg?w=1024)
“So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts: Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.”
― Hermann Hesse, (1877-1962). Bäume. Betrachtungen und Gedichte
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I enjoyed reading this praise of trees this morning. I was just on my back porch an hour ago and reflected on a tall old pine tree the neighbor took down a few weeks ago. There are two more still standing amongst other smaller trees. They are such a comfort to watch. Wonderful photos too.
I’m glad you enjoyed it. We have a lot of oak trees where I live and they’ve come to seem like old, silent, wise, and comforting friends. Even the ones who have fallen, those old bones lying there in the grass, still seeming so kind, giving refuge to the critters around them.
They are a comfort – so true!
What a powerful tribute to trees! Thanks for weaving the wise and reverent words of Hermann Hesse with the perfectly matched photos. Wonderful post Deborah! To trees, listening, learning, and revering.
Thank you, Brad. I’m happy you enjoyed this.
“Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours.” Well, it depends. Some kinds of trees live for hundreds or occasionally even thousands of years, while other kinds of trees have a considerably shorter life than the average person does.
That’s interesting. I hadn’t know that. Thanks for sharing.
Because trees on average outlive people, often by a lot, I expect we tend to think of all trees that way. Bradford pear trees, frequently planted as ornamentals in Austin because of their pretty spring flowers, have a typical lifespan of only 20–25 years. Redbud trees, also widely planted for their profuse pink blossoms, generally live 20–40 years.
So the blooming ones have shorter lifespans, it appears. The beautiful plum tree we planted, I wonder how long it will live. But we have, at another house, seen a gigantic pine as well as a beautiful birch die from disease. So sad.
One website posited a general (but not hard and fast) rule in which there’s an inverse relationship between a tree’s rate of growth and its longevity.
Great photos! Thanks for sharing Hesse’s essay. I enjoyed it.
I’m glad you enjoyed. Thanks for letting me know.
Ya know? This reminds me to re-visit some of HH’s work. I forgot how strangely lyrical his writing could be while being so ‘philosophical’. Lovely application – plus hits home!
🙂
Yes, I need to read/reread him again too. It’s been a long while.
Utterly stunning, Deborah! Both the essay and your photos! Thank you so much for this! 🙏🌳🌲