These words in quotes in the paragraphs below capture the totality of what trees represent. I would not dare to recreate these words that are so eloquently spoken. I only know how important trees are to all of us and we so often take them for granted. Here in Marin and everywhere, trees are our silent partners, bearing witness to all that happens on earth, they are our medicine, our protectors, and our heros and not just the redwoods, the sequoias, the grand oaks, but all trees, great and small. If there is one thing I am grateful for, it’s trees. – Mary Serphos, Marin Nomad

“For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfil themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured.

Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.

A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the wind at evening. If one listens to them silently for a long time, this longing reveals its kernel, its meaning. It is not so much a matter of escaping from one’s suffering, though it may seem to be so. It is a longing for home, for a memory of the mother, for new metaphors for life. It leads home. Every path leads homeward, every step is birth, every step is death, every grave is mother.

Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.”

― Hermann Hesse

The Trees in Marin are so beautifully represented along so many streets, trails, towns and hidden spots. Find amazing oaks along the trails of Deer Park in Fairfax and all over Mt. Tam Watershed, including Lake Lagunitas and Kent Lake out in West Marin. And the interior of China Camp State Park in San Rafael has many incredible trees. Take a Drive out through Samuel P. Taylor State Park and stop and worship the trees along the river where the salmon are spawning right now and don’t forget the drive in Mill Valley along Mt. Tam above the Alpine Club. Swoon at the lone oaks off of 101 going North past San Rafael into Novato. Where is your favorite tree or place to take in a plethora of trees in Marin?