Two Cups of Tea at Hope’s Café
The concluding phrase on last week’s blog “sway with the wind” stayed with me all week. The gentle swaying of trees is akin for me to watching water lap the shore, a peaceful rhythm, spirit-calming. Intrigued by what I might discover, I explored this.
Swaying is a healthy biological and mechanical response, indicating a tree is actively dissipating wind energy to prevent structural failure. Furthermore, I learned: “Leaves flutter and the canopy reconfigures to reduce wind resistance, allowing the wind to pass through more efficiently….Smaller branches…sway independently of the main trunk to absorb up to 50% of the kinetic energy before it reaches the base….The remaining energy is neutralized within the wood tissue as cells rub together, converting mechanical force into harmless thermal energy.” * Fascinating!
So much information is available that expands beyond this. The Planet Pulse site discusses the benefits of satellite technology to monitor tree health, touting an important aspect in this age of so many wildfires. Given the immense task of overseeing millions of acres of forest land—321 million in the United States, 815 million in Canada, 160 million in the E.U., 808 million in Brazil—satellites provide a valuable resource to anticipate and address problems beforehand.
The parallel of this to human beings is noteworthy. When we “sway with the wind,” we function more efficiently. When we pay attention to our health, we can often avoid medical problems. This applies to families and other societal systems as well. The more rigid, the less resilient; the less rigid, the more resilient. Structure and boundaries are important. But the inability or unwillingness to adapt to change, to cope with difficulties when they are encountered, to thoughtfully problem-solve, results in obstacles of monumental proportions.
Tasneern Harneed, a writer and consultant on topics like innovation, AI and human adaptability, suggests that we: “Learn character from trees, values from roots and change from leaves.”
Sway with the wind, my friends. Sway with the wind.
The invitation is open to share two cups of tea anytime at Hope’s Café or anywhere you share companionship and conversation.
May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” at Hope’s Café, for each other and all those we encounter. Shalom, Kate
*Multiple sites revealed information related to this including https://stormwise.uconn.edu; https://auf.isa-arbor.com;https://www.reddit.com;https://phys.org (and many others!)
Hope's Cafe 
Such a great metaphor and lessons from nature. I agree with the notion of how self-destructive it is to those who are not flexible. In large part the Conservative Republican party is experiencing this given the rapid changes in our culture, demographics, and politics. The MAGA mantra, “Make America Great Again” is successful with a lot of our family and friends for this very reason.
Mike
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Thanks to the kitchen staff at Hope’s Cafe, who must have done the research work I enjoyed reading that was necessary before this article’s food for thought could be served. I will particularly hold onto the thought of character lessons to be learned from the structure of trees.
In the book The Song of Trees, author David George Haskell develops the theme of how trees make contributions to the ecological communities surrounding them, constantly interacting with fungi, bacteria, and animals (including humans). As such, he suggests trees are also models of how to make healthy contributions within the communities in which we live.
Please continue all the good work that makes my weekly stops at the Cafe so rewarding.
Pat Lavin
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