Speak for the Trees

Written by Josie Hammond and Liv Adao

Given that it is the spooky season, we’d like to talk about the scariest thing we can think of–death! Yes, yes, we know this might be sort of a wild topic. But we’d like to offer an alternative view of the process. We here at Speak For The Trees have been inspired to no end by the way that our icon, Mary Oliver, discusses death in her work. Typically, when it comes to environmental activism, we tend to see the death of animals and plants plastered across posters and magazines hailing the proverbial or literal end of days. But Oliver reminds us in her simple and tender tone that we needn’t be hostages to the fear of death, but rather embrace it as a part of the cycle of life. To not view death as life’s opposite, but its partner.

We don’t see fear of death exclusively in activism, but also in our greater Western culture at large. We fear, and even worse, refuse to talk about, death. This leads to, among other issues, an unnatural fear and avoidance of what is ultimately a natural process.

Mary Oliver here reminds us of the beauty that is inherent in everything on this earth, including death. As Mary would remind us, what is death but not the perpetuation of the glorious cycle of life? In the most explicit way, the death of a prey animal will directly nourish and feed its predator. Similarly, the shedding of leaves in the winter will allow the tree to later blossom in the spring.

Truly, there is no life without death, and no way for us to live on this planet without causing some death. This can sound counterintuitive, especially since we regularly advocate and encourage the protection of animals and plants, but there is more nuance than that. Yes, we should accept and acknowledge the commonplace role that death plays in life, but we also should try to limit the unnecessary and useless death of animals and plants. Death plays a role in life, but only if we allow nature to take its proper course and fully make use of death to weave life or improve our lives. So, we at Speak for the Trees want to send a message and provoke a different perspective on death.

Of course, it is not as simple as quickly switching your entire attitude on the subject; death, especially of those you know, will never be easy, no matter how many platitudes we spam you with. But our hope is to open the door to the possibility of more nuance when thinking about and witnessing death. Your homework this week is to go out and find beauty in the world that walks hand in hand with death. Bye bye Treehuggers, til death do us part. 🖤 🥀 🫰