Central to Suzanne Simmard's work on Finding The Mother Trees is cooperation, collaboration and this dance of "it is in giving that we receive." She talks about the 'wood wide web' - how older mama trees support seedlings and other trees through the mycorrhizal (fungal) networks. This is seminal work that has set the tone for a deeper understanding of forests as communities, hidden underground cities that are mycelium networks and that cooperation is perhaps more important than competition in the long-term.

It's also deeply personal for Simmard, her own life story intertwining with her scientific discoveries. As she battles cancer with drugs from the yew tree, something she said struck a note with me too. "What am I if I don't give back?"

Here I'm reminded of Martin Buber's articulation of relation with the seemingly inanimate, plants and animals as "I-Thou." As kin, part of our fabric of belonging, of our ancestry. Not as I-It. As the other, not connected to our being, not connected to who we are. Or as Robin Wall Kimmerer would put it so simply, would you refer to a friend's grandmother as It?

This book wasn't an easy one to get through - it starts with stories about tree-logging, enough to make me bawl and put the book away for days. How do we balance our needs and Nature's without causing outright harm.

Just like the dilemma that this Christmas Cactus threw me into. Pigeons upended the pot, they pecked away at the plant destroying it repeatedly. All of which only made me cry: for the poor water-starved pigeons, these humble jungle cacti just trying to live. I wanted both to live without my bleeding heart causing me even more distress. The plants have moved next to my bookshelf, chimes and a Bhaane top now serve as a noisy scarecrow, the cats continue to chatter away at the pigeons. The balance restored intermittently till I figure out how to water the pigeons too.

What am I if I don't give back and send the gift back to close the loop. Till I figure that out, I hope I don't mistake doing more good for doing no harm.

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More Reading:
- Lewis Hyde's The Gift
- Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass and Gathering Moss
- Richard Powers' Overstory
- Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life