The Healing Wisdom of the Forest: Simple Lessons of Recovery, Renewal, and Serenity

Unlock the power of personal wisdom with nature’s best teacher: trees, sentinels of both understanding and insight.

In every civilized country, trees have been revered for their arboreal wisdom, common sense modeling, botanical philosophy, and lifelong acumen. They are, without argument, icons of counsel and direction. Trees offer commending insights for our lives...lives succumbed to stress, anxiety, and loss of focus. Trees are, in so many ways, individual examples of determination, vibrancy, and passion; not for a moment, but rather for a lifetime. The Healing Wisdom of Trees offers sixty-five separate essays of practical advice that can change lives for the better; a collection of scientific and psychological insights that can renew and reinvigorate for the long term.

This is not a book about spirituality, trees that talk to us, or ever-knowing sprites that gambol through the forest. It is a collection of compelling anecdotes and vivid stories about how trees serve as valuable models for our lives; how we can deal with the challenges of everyday living, and how we can grow as individuals. With the best-selling author of The Secret Life of Clams and In Search of the Old Ones, Anthony D. Fredericks, you’ll venture into a redwood forest to learn about how trees show us the importance of community, you’ll discover how peach trees model the power of friendship, you’ll see how cherry trees exemplify the significance of calmness, and you’ll learn how aspens demonstrate our need to draw strength from others. Here, trees are our mentors and our teachers.

Part travelogue, part natural history, part science, and part psychology, this absorbing book shows us how we can reinvigorate our lives, reduce everyday stress, and bring out the best in ourselves when we heed the wisdom of trees.

Anthony D. Fredericks is a husband, father, grandfather, brother, and cousin. So too, is he Professor Emeritus of Education at York College of Pennsylvania where he taught science, writing, and teacher education courses. He is a prolific and award-winning author of more than 175 adult nonfiction and children’s books, including In Search of the Old Ones: An Odyssey among Ancient Trees; Two-Minute Habits: Small Habits, Dynamic Creativity; Tall Tall Tree; and A is for Anaconda: A Rainforest Alphabet. He has also written for an array of magazines and online journals including High Country News, Hawai’i Magazine, Harrisburg Magazine, Teaching K-8, CNBC-Make It, and Psychology Today, among others. A professional educator for more than a half-century, he has offered science workshops, conducted natural history presentations, and made keynote addresses throughout North America. He and his wife, Phyllis, live in York, Pennsylvania. www.anthonydfredericks.com