I knew it! 

May I never break a tree's heart........

..... Interesting to come across this as I'm rereading The Silmarillion. Learning about
the birth of the Ents. The Tree Shepherds

Trees Have a "Heartbeat," Scientists Discover

• by Brandon Prows 
• Published on September 21, 2018 

Share on facebookNew Discovery Proves Trees Have HeartbeatsThe world that we live on is home to a wide range of different kinds of life. Whether we are looking at humans, dogs, cats, all types of fish or even the microscopic bacteria that we cannot see, it would appear that there is a nearly infinite number of different living species for us to examine and explore. Amongst all the different types of life, there are plants. This includes everything from moss, to dandelions, to the tallest trees in Redwood National Park.

Trees are a fascinating species on Earth. Unlike other creatures, trees can live for thousands and thousands of years. The oldest tree on record lived for over five thousand years! Unbelievable! It was still three thousand years old when Rome was at its greatest point. It’s amazing to think about and it’s absolutely crazy how long trees can live. They are amongst the oldest living creatures on the entire planet.

We know that trees are alive because they use energy to create their own energy. Even though they lack the organs that creatures like mammals have, trees still have their own set of unique organs.

The Secret Rhythm Of Trees

Have you ever wondered if it is possible for a tree to have a heartbeat? A tree may not have a heart, but the concept of it having its own beat and rhythm is not as far-fetched as you may think! According to a new study, trees have a special type of beat in their bodies similar to that of a heartbeat.

The study was headed by András Zlinszky, Bence Molnár and Anders S. Barfod from Hungary and Denmark. They used advanced monitoring techniques known as “terrestrial laser scanning” to survey the movement of twenty-two different types of trees. The investigation on trees revealed that while trees sleep at night they routinely have beats pulsate throughout their body.

These pulses are the tree distributing water throughout its body, similar to the way a heart pumps blood through the body. This could change the way that we study and look at trees, as it had long been assumed that trees distribute water via osmosis. What an incredible find! The heart beats occur very slowly in between one another, with some of them taking hours to repeat. They phenomenon is slow and gentle that it cannot be seen with the naked human eye. Nature is amazing!

The study also revealed that it turns out that trees move a lot more than people initially thought. It turns out that numerous species of trees dropped their leaves down up to ten centimeters after the sun goes down. This is because the trees are sleeping and entering their own type of circadian rhythm known as “circadian leaf movements.”

With as much as the study revealed to scientists, there is still much that we do not understand. For example, it is still unknown how the heartbeat and water pump fully work. More research is required in order to fully understand what is happening. Who knows what else we’ll discover about the world of trees and plant life? Recent research proved that plants and trees have the capability to feel pain and cry out in agony when being harmed. Up until then, we all thought that plants couldn’t feel pain! It just goes to show how little we actually know about everything. It’s all the more exciting to learn about how nature really works!

I just finished memorizing this today. I'll practice it for a week, and next Tuesday I'll recite it (tell it as a story) for my poetry circle. I love poems that tell a story, and this one is powerful:

The Suicide

Edna St. Vincent Millay - 1892-1950

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"Curse thee, Life, I will live with thee no more!
Thou hast mocked me, starved me, beat my body sore!
And all for a pledge that was not pledged by me,
I have kissed thy crust and eaten sparingly
That I might eat again, and met thy sneers
With deprecations, and thy blows with tears,—
Aye, from thy glutted lash, glad, crawled away,
As if spent passion were a holiday!
And now I go. Nor threat, nor easy vow
Of tardy kindness can avail thee now
With me, whence fear and faith alike are flown;
Lonely I came, and I depart alone,
And know not where nor unto whom I go;
But that thou canst not follow me I know."

Thus I to Life, and ceased; but through my brain
My thought ran still, until I spake again:

"Ah, but I go not as I came,—no trace
Is mine to bear away of that old grace
I brought! I have been heated in thy fires,
Bent by thy hands, fashioned to thy desires,
Thy mark is on me! I am not the same
Nor ever more shall be, as when I came.
Ashes am I of all that once I seemed.
In me all's sunk that leapt, and all that dreamed
Is wakeful for alarm,—oh, shame to thee,
For the ill change that thou hast wrought in me,
Who laugh no more nor lift my throat to sing
Ah, Life, I would have been a pleasant thing
To have about the house when I was grown
If thou hadst left my little joys alone!
I asked of thee no favor save this one:
That thou wouldst leave me playing in the sun!
And this thou didst deny, calling my name
Insistently, until I rose and came.
I saw the sun no more.—It were not well
So long on these unpleasant thoughts to dwell,
Need I arise to-morrow and renew
Again my hated tasks, but I am through
With all things save my thoughts and this one night,
So that in truth I seem already quite
Free,and remote from thee,—I feel no haste
And no reluctance to depart; I taste
Merely, with thoughtful mien, an unknown draught,
That in a little while I shall have quaffed."

Thus I to Life, and ceased, and slightly smiled,
Looking at nothing; and my thin dreams filed
Before me one by one till once again
I set new words unto an old refrain:

"Treasures thou hast that never have been mine!
Warm lights in many a secret chamber shine
Of thy gaunt house, and gusts of song have blown
Like blossoms out to me that sat alone!
And I have waited well for thee to show
If any share were mine,—and now I go
Nothing I leave, and if I naught attain
I shall but come into mine own again!"

Thus I to Life, and ceased, and spake no more,
But turning, straightway, sought a certain door
In the rear wall. Heavy it was, and low
And dark,—a way by which none e'er would go
That other exit had, and never knock
Was heard thereat,—bearing a curious lock
Some chance had shown me fashioned faultily,
Whereof Life held content the useless key,
And great coarse hinges, thick and rough with rust,
Whose sudden voice across a silence must,
I knew, be harsh and horrible to hear,—
A strange door, ugly like a dwarf.—So near
I came I felt upon my feet the chill
Of acid wind creeping across the sill.
So stood longtime, till over me at last
Came weariness, and all things other passed
To make it room; the still night drifted deep
Like snow about me, and I longed for sleep.

But, suddenly, marking the morning hour,
Bayed the deep-throated bell within the tower!
Startled, I raised my head,—and with a shout
Laid hold upon the latch,—and was without.

* * * *

Ah, long-forgotten, well-remembered road, 
Leading me back unto my old abode, 
My father's house! There in the night I came, 
And found them feasting, and all things the same 
As they had been before. A splendour hung 
Upon the walls, and such sweet songs were sung 
As, echoing out of very long ago, 
Had called me from the house of Life, I know.
So fair their raiment shone I looked in shame
On the unlovely garb in which I came;
Then straightway at my hesitancy mocked:
"It is my father's house!" I said and knocked;
And the door opened. To the shining crowd
Tattered and dark I entered, like a cloud,
Seeing no face but his; to him I crept,
And "Father!" I cried, and clasped his knees, and wept.

* * * *

Ah, days of joy that followed! All alone
I wandered through the house. My own, my own,
My own to touch, my own to taste and smell,
All I had lacked so long and loved so well!
None shook me out of sleep, nor hushed my song,
Nor called me in from the sunlight all day long.

I know not when the wonder came to me
Of what my father's business might be,
And whither fared and on what errands bent
The tall and gracious messengers he sent.
Yet one day with no song from dawn till night
Wondering, I sat, and watched them out of sight.
And the next day I called; and on the third
Asked them if I might go,—but no one heard.
Then, sick with longing, I arose at last
And went unto my father,—in that vast
Chamber wherein he for so many years
Has sat, surrounded by his charts and spheres.
"Father," I said, "Father, I cannot play
The harp that thou didst give me, and all day
I sit in idleness, while to and fro
About me thy serene, grave servants go;
And I am weary of my lonely ease.
Better a perilous journey overseas
Away from thee, than this, the life I lead,
To sit all day in the sunshine like a weed
That grows to naught,—I love thee more than they
Who serve thee most; yet serve thee in no way.
Father, I beg of thee a little task
To dignify my days,—'tis all I ask
Forever, but forever, this denied,
I perish."
        "Child," my father's voice replied,
"All things thy fancy hath desired of me
Thou hast received. I have prepared for thee
Within my house a spacious chamber, where
Are delicate things to handle and to wear,
And all these things are thine. Dost thou love song?
My minstrels shall attend thee all day long.
Or sigh for flowers? My fairest gardens stand
Open as fields to thee on every hand.
And all thy days this word shall hold the same:
No pleasure shalt thou lack that thou shalt name.
But as for tasks—" he smiled, and shook his head;
"Thou hadst thy task, and laidst it by," he said.

The other day, my next door neighbor for the past 23 years - dear friend and fellow educator - fell down at the grocery store, apparently, with a stroke, and died. ........ This has been hard for me to wrap my brain around. She was only a few years older than I, and from the looks of it, in better shape. So I'm simultaneously grieving because I'm going to miss her, and looking at myself, realizing that this could be me. So easily. ........ Time for me, to the degree I can, to carefully attend to the things I have neglected. Get more exercise, be more careful about what I eat. I don't know how much that stuff actually helps, because as I said, I believe she was better at that than I. But as much as I can control, I will.

                            Our world would be a place of peace
                            If we each would now and then lie
                            Alone on our backs beneath the trees
                            Gazing at the sky -
                            Feeling caress of sun and breeze,
                            Watching the clouds sail by.

                            How could any soul, thus soothed,
                            Against another soul be moved?

                                                 Whatever else is going on,
                                                 I keep my mind set right -
                                                 Up with Edna at the dawn,
                                                 Down with Dickinson in the night.

I love these little Everyman's Pocket Books. There are about 50 of them, stuffed with the works of many poets and writers, I have cleared a shelf and will be filling it, as I study the Word People. Edna and Emily are just the beginning. And what a beginning! I'll be memorizing pieces by most of the people I study. My brain is gonna be so full!  ...... Still have to finish The Suicide (not much to go) and tackle Renascence (huge) before I can start in earnest on Emily. The other day I recorded myself reciting what I know of The Suicide, and while I need to tweak the equipment and perfect my delivery, I was pleased. Some day what I memorize will be on YouTube!