Being with Trees: A Contemplative Walk
With Sandra Cowan and Annie Martin
This audio walk is part of the Walking Art and Relational Geographies Walking Art Conference
Catalonia, Spain, July 5-9, 2022
In an understanding of our interrelationship with all beings, this audio walk will guide participants in an experiential interaction with trees while walking among them. During this contemplative walk, we will be invited to be aware of all of our senses, and extend our perception widely. We know that trees communicate through fungal networks and pheromones, and there is an increasing understanding of their sentience and ontological realities*. How can we be with trees in a way that is open to relationship? Can we learn to go beyond our extractive and dualistic assumptions in relating to the natural world?
In this walk we will tune in to different aspects of relationship to trees, through guided contemplations and actions that focus our senses and invite an experience of co-being and appreciation.
Participants can download the audio walk and listen to it while walking through any forest, woods, bosque, or grove of trees, pausing the audio at any time to spend more time in reflection, silence, or being with trees. It can be adapted for non-walkers by sitting in view of a tree or forest. If you would like to send us a photo from your walk and let us know the location, we would be pleased to add it to the online gallery below.
Download audio walk (MP3) here.
With Sandra Cowan and Annie Martin
This audio walk is part of the Walking Art and Relational Geographies Walking Art Conference
Catalonia, Spain, July 5-9, 2022
In an understanding of our interrelationship with all beings, this audio walk will guide participants in an experiential interaction with trees while walking among them. During this contemplative walk, we will be invited to be aware of all of our senses, and extend our perception widely. We know that trees communicate through fungal networks and pheromones, and there is an increasing understanding of their sentience and ontological realities*. How can we be with trees in a way that is open to relationship? Can we learn to go beyond our extractive and dualistic assumptions in relating to the natural world?
In this walk we will tune in to different aspects of relationship to trees, through guided contemplations and actions that focus our senses and invite an experience of co-being and appreciation.
Participants can download the audio walk and listen to it while walking through any forest, woods, bosque, or grove of trees, pausing the audio at any time to spend more time in reflection, silence, or being with trees. It can be adapted for non-walkers by sitting in view of a tree or forest. If you would like to send us a photo from your walk and let us know the location, we would be pleased to add it to the online gallery below.
Download audio walk (MP3) here.
Online Gallery
If you want to share a photo of a tree you encountered on this walk, we would be happy to add it to the online gallery. Please email a photo along with the location of your walk to: [email protected]
If you want to share a photo of a tree you encountered on this walk, we would be happy to add it to the online gallery. Please email a photo along with the location of your walk to: [email protected]
Some Books about Trees We Recommend:
Beresford-Kroeger, Diana. (2019). To Speak For The Trees: My Life's Journey From Ancient Celtic Wisdom To A Healing Vision Of The Forest.
Deakin, Richard. (2008). Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees.
Geniusz, Mary Siisip. (2015). Plants Have So Much To Give Us All We Have to Do Is Ask: Anishinabe Botanical Teachings.
Irigaray, Luce, & Michael Marder. (2016). Through Vegetal Being: Two Philosophical Perspectives.
Kimmerer, Robin Wall. (2015). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.
Simard, Suzanne. (2021). Finding The Mother Tree: Discovering The Wisdom Of The Forest.
Wohlleben, Peter. (2016). The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from A Secret World.
Wohlleben, Peter & Jane Billinghurst. (2022). Forest Walking: Discovering The Trees And Woodlands Of North America.
*Abbott, S. (2021). Approaching Nonhuman Ontologies: Trees, Communication, and Qualitative Inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry, 27(8–9), 1059–1071. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800421994954
Unless otherwise stated, all photos © Sandra Cowan 2022