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MADAME XHALES AT TREE HUGGING SITES
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MADAME XHALES AT TREE-HUGGING SITES
BY REGINA LYNCH-HUDSON | PHOTOGRAPHY BY COURTLAND BIVENS III
Sometimes, in today's world of fewer handshakes, kisses, and smooches, all you want to do is hug a tree. And that's precisely what I did on the grounds of historic Black Mountain Inn, an original stagecoach stop.
This inn dates back to 1830 and was once a summer retreat for fellow tree-huggers like Ernest Hemingway, Norman Rockwell, and Helen Keller. A marker honors the old oak tree, a landmark with its ginormous comforting branches. For me, the tree spells nostalgia, beckoning ‘just over the fence’ from my childhood home.
Global communities and cultures have long carved out unique ways to show appreciation for nature’s most important bounty. Trees are by far Mother Nature's most essential component of our planet, providing oxygen for all inhabitants and balancing our fragile ecosystem.
Two Spring holidays offer opportunities to embrace and protect our trees and forests. Arbor Day, typically held on the last Friday of April in most states, is a national holiday to promote tree planting, upkeep, and preservation. National Love A Tree Day is celebrated annually on May 16 (with World Tree Day happening on March 21, and National Tree Day observed annually in September).
healing & peace: Trees not only provide shade and beauty, but some are also "healers of the land." Willow bark has been used for centuries as a medicinal compound to treat pain, fever, and aches, dating back to ancient Egypt.
Imagine my surprise when I learned that an enormous Weeping Willow loomed over the house site of my medicine woman great-great-mother. Today, the retrieved sculpture-like remains of the original Willow sit center stage in my home gallery, as a symbolic token of healing and peace. The original tree, planted a near century ago, was struck by lightning and saved and sold to me by the present elderly resident of the property─as if the remnant had been magically awaiting my arrival.
A recent estimate of tree counts, recorded in countless studies, found there to be an estimated three trillion trees across the globe─or a generous 422 trees per person. I haven’t hugged my entitled 422 trees yet, but I’m up for the assignment. Join me for a Tarzan-like swing through a few of my favorite branches in the world:
Cat Ba Island, Vietnam
There are 13 prevalent species of Banana trees in tropical Vietnam. In traveling throughout over 9 cities and towns on a month-long tour of the incredibly spectacular country, I devoured diverse Vietnamese cuisine created using the fruit and its roots, flowers and leaves. One of my most memorable sightings of the glorious fruit shrub was while canvassing Viet Hai Village, an 'isolated paradise' located in Cat Ba Island. The primitive hideaway evoked my 21st Century Jungle Jane, in a refuge of rain forests and rice fields.
Angkor Wat, Cambodia
The root-snarled Ta Prohm, dubbed the ‘Tomb Raider Temple’ because it provided the otherworldly backdrop for the Hollywood hit starring Angelina Jolie, ranks as my most and whimsical tree sighting. The monstrosity of the limbs of the Giant Banyan Trees appear to alternately choke and caress the crumbling ruins throughout Angkor Wat. The energy field surrounding the Banyan Tree is mystifying.
Oranjestad, Aruba
The alluring Divi Divi tree has become Aruba's reliable GPS system, with its dramatically twisted branches always pointing in a southwesterly fashion, due to trade winds that whoosh across the island from the north-east. The limbs of the Divi Divi tree have presented a throne for many a visiting diva to sit and admire the Caribbean Sea.
