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I lean my hand against the little tree’s trunk, its trembling leaves casting a flickering shadow on my face. The soundscape is all wind and birds, with the river below humming her ceaseless song — today, it speaks of glaciers and melting snow on distant mountains. I look up and quivering against the sky are the sapling’s much taller peers, their white trunks vertical strips against the varied green of the canopy and the brilliant blue beyond.
Peers isn’t quite right, though. Because this little aspen is actually the same tree as all the rest on the slope. Its genetic code is identical — connected underground through a vast root system, the aspen sends up shoots to absorb sun and rain, sharing nutrients and the life-giving sugars it harvests through the delicate and complex process of photosynthesis. Each shoot may look like a single, lonely tree, but in fact it’s not alone at all. It’s part of a community. It’s one with all the others.
We are the same. Every thought we put into the world, every action we take touches everyone and everything else, eventually. We ripple through life, most of our impact unseen and barely perceptible — but there nonetheless. Quantum physics describes entanglement, in which particles respond to stimulus at a distance. Many Indigenous pedagogies see a sacred circle of life, in which we are inextricably intertwined. Religions and faiths from across the globe often see divinity in all life and its many interactions. However it works, there is a deep connection that threads through our species and defies our notions of linear time and biological separateness. Like the aspen spreading out across this hillside, reaching for the warmth of the sun with its many arms, we are all connected.
There is both a deep joy in knowing this and a terrible responsibility. Because if we are not in isolation, everything we do, say, think and create carries a greater weight than if we were just alone, casting stones into water. As members of a community, we need to be thoughtful and intentional, careful and caring. And as much as we are these things at times, we are also greedy, selfish and destructive. We kill indiscriminately, we pollute, we bark poison into the digital void. Our violent ways cast looming shadows.
But in all the horror, beauty and hope can always be found. Every day, we are kind and we are loving. We lift each other up and we innovate our way through innumerable problems. Most of the time, we do this in community with each other. Sharing ideas and finding common ground in the search for solutions.
When I feel lost, I try to remember where to look for answers. The natural world is full of them. I sit for a minute beside the aspen, the dirt under me warm and damp, a litter of leaves from last year softly crackling as I lower my body to the ground. Breathing, listening.
The interconnectedness of all life extends far beyond humanity. As creatures walking around on the face of this little blue planet, we are inevitably part of Earth’s ecosystem. We all share this great and awful world and we share a responsibility to care for it and for each other. And she cares for us, in equal measure. When we remember this, it’s easier to see the multitude of paths through problems to the solutions beyond. Botanist and agronomist Wes Jackson said: “When we begin to see nature as mentor, gratitude tempers greed and the notion of resources becomes obscene.” Reciprocity.
As my hand rests on the little tree and I take a moment to breathe, it absorbs the carbon dioxide I exhale and turns it into oxygen, which I then breathe in. It senses me as I sense it and together we perform a symbiotic dance. A pair of peregrine falcons have been nesting nearby and when I walk into the field, I know they watch me. They call and I turn my eyes to the sky in silent greeting. Maybe I flush prey out for them as I walk through the tall grass and they mark it with their focused gaze from hundreds of feet up. The bear with the heart-shaped patch on his chest, he knows me better than I know him. I’ve only seen him twice but he’s seen me dozens of times since waking up from his winter sleep. Smelling and listening and feeling my presence on the land from the footprints I leave behind.
We are living in a moment where everything feels precarious, divided. Too often, the connections we share with one another and with the natural world are disintegrating or devolving. To find our way through and reconnect, we need to be like the aspen and root ourselves in community. Maybe there we will find understanding that who we are now and always is an iterative product of everyone and everything around us. We create ourselves and each other. We are evolving together, stumbling forward through time.
Like the little aspen quivering under a towering canopy, there’s fragility in reaching for warmth while feeling so small and when the winds of the world are cold and powerful. And yet, we are not alone, none of us.
— Matt Simmons
If these words resonate with you, please consider forwarding to four friends, inviting them to join the Aspen community. Together, we can create space where we collectively slow down, reconnect with what matters and seek out, find and uplift solutions. If you want to support the process of building this community, financially or in other ways, reach out to editor@aspenmag.ca.