This blog was going to be about being a Pagan in this modern technological world, but there's a message I'm trying to get out there, and this blog is a good place for it, so I'll put it here.  I wasn't kidding about trees being absolutely essential to human life.  They are.  They are also essential to animal life.  I don't know of any animals that don't require oxygen.  Even the fish of the sea require it, but of course they have sea weed to provide it for them.  Since trees take in carbon dioxide, and exhale oxygen, they provide us with the oxygen we need to survive.  Ever not been able to breathe?  It's a nasty feeling, isn't it?  We would all have that feeling all the time without trees.  I don't know about the other greenhouse gases, but I know they take in  carbon dioxide and exhale  oxygen.  Maybe they also take in the others.  I don't know, not being a science geek.  That's how they are absolutely essential. 

There are other respects in which they are just very nice to have around.  I have a dear friend who has a favorite tree that she likes to meditate under, record her thoughts in her journal, and draw.  I'm sure that many of you have favorite trees too.  They are fine companions to have.  Their stoic silence can be comforting amid the hubbub of everyday modern life.  The fruit from many trees is good to eat.  The acorns from the California oaks were staples in the diets of many California Native Americans.  They used sea water to leach out the alkaloids, ground them, and made them into tortillas.  And how many of us liked to climb trees as kids?  I'm sure that many of us did.  Then there was that refuge away from adults, the tree house.  Then there was the tree swing.  Take a willing tree with an obliging limb, some rope, and a nicely sanded board, or an old tire.  Result an instant entertainment device that will occupy your young one for hours without electronics or batteries.  Sure, it may require some parental help for awhile, but once you teach your child to pump, s/he'll be occupied for hours.  

 Then there are all the things we use the wood of trees for.  The bark is used as mulch.  Wood pulp is widely used for paper, despite how much we'd like to see the paperless office.  My SO talks constantly about how one of the doctors where he works is working towards the paperless office of the future, but how the other doctors seem to cling to papers with the grip of drowning men.But I think that paper can easily be made from hemp, and would save the trees.  We use wood for building materials too, and there are some with fireplaces and Franklin type stoves that use wood for fuel for heating.  I have to admit that there is nothing quite as romantic as a fire in a fireplace. 

Then there's the habitat trees provide for other creatures.  Admittedly, many of them are creepy crawly bugs that are parasites of the trees on which they live.  But there are other creatures, frogs, birds, and small mammals that make the trees their home.  And our lives would be less rich without them.  Whenever I see a squirrel, my day is brightened, if only just for the five or ten minutes in which I observe it.   

Yes, trees are wonderful beings.  They do so much for us.  Shouldn't we try to save them whenever possible?  So all of you get the word out:  Trees are absolutely essential to human life. What have   trees done for you?  Join  my  friend's  email group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheBattlefortheTreesRevolution to discuss what trees do for you and what we can do to get the message out, and do something for the trees.