Forest Soul of the Week
by Brenna DeBartolo
January 21, 2018
Say what's up to our newest Forest Souls customer, JT Tozier, a gifted writer, located in Washington, D.C.! Two trees have been planted through his purchase, a 'Old Soul' T-Shirt as he wore in this photo.
What inspired you to be part of Nature? Embracing the trees was traveling back to the beginning of the Old Soul, when nature on the earth and all trees were the master key for the survival. Nature has always been integral to learning and growing. I believe that nature is a symbolic narrative of life. Nature is nothing more powerful than Arne Naess, a Norwegian philosopher who once said, “Well, let us consider a forest, and discuss plans for building a road through this forest” and the path has build a lover of nature that energizes the foundation of spirituality. Nature to me, a symbol of strength, endurance, and vision.
What is your favorite tree and why? Douglas Fir. I was taught to love and embrace the trees, walk by, felt its presence and had been gone through a great silence and become the forest of all souls from all walks of life. The Douglas Fir trees were special, an implacable force in the guide of energy. When I was a kid, I used to build a tepee along with the sticks from Douglas Fir tree branches on my own and camped out. Nothing can beat that experience. My grandfather once told me to learn how to appreciate trees and he told me a simple story—our understanding of nature to know the six basic dimensions of physical quantities—mass, length, time, temperature, plane angle, and solid angle. Growing up surrounded by thousands of Douglas Fir trees, I also learn to appreciate the symbolization of an individual journey we each must take to find our own path.
What message would you like to share with the community? Sung by Yokut, a Native American once wrote, “All my life. I Have been seeking, Seeking!”—We must continue to resist against corps that are attempting to take over 92 million acres in Utah National Forest to begin drilling is a way of forgetting the lives of trees that belongs to Native Americans. The oil drillers, corrupt politicians, business stakeholders do not belong in our national forests and public lands. We need to stop them by taking over Native American lands to deny their livelihood and beautiful stories.
After learning Native American Experience through Education for ten weeks, my professor once said, “When a Native American follows to the four directions, it is the way to the spirits of the world, to life and the Great Spirit that encompasses the four directions and everything that is. East, South, West, and North. They are part of our biology and our spirit. They are archetypes of the highest order. As such the trees are powerful carriers of symbolic meaning.
Again, congratulations on being featured as Forest Soul of the Week! Thank you for all your support and sharing your love for trees with us!
#forestsouls #forestsouloftheweek
Brenna DeBartolo
Author