🎭 Culture 17h ago · Maria Popova

How to Be a Tree: Notes on the Resilience of Letting Go

Brain Pickings
Culture and creativity essays
View Channel →
How to Be a Tree: Notes on the Resilience of Letting Go
Source ↗ 👁 0 💬 0
This essay and poem are part of the Universe in Verse book.
Trees grant us some of the richest metaphors for our own lives — a polished lens on the quality of attention we pay the world. “The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way,” wrote William Blake. Walt Whitman considered them our greatest teachers in living with authenticity. For Hermann Hesse, the key to existential joy was in learning how to listen to the trees.
But

Comments (0)

Sign in to join the discussion

More Like This

Sarah Jones Fell Out of Love With America. Her New Play Takes It to Counseling
Culture: News, Reviews and Opinion - Vogue · 3h ago
The Real Appeal of the Internet’s Favorite Terrible Movie
Culture | The Atlantic · 3h ago
The Kennedy Center’s Purgatory
Culture | The Atlantic · 4h ago
📰
Roy Slaper, Unlikely ‘Legend’ of Denim, Dies at 54
NYT > Arts · 4h ago
Lit Hub Weekly: August 24 – 28, 2026
Literary Hub · 4h ago
Maybe This Fall Will Be Kind
Hyperallergic · 5h ago