“I’m telling the tree it’s beautiful,” I said after a moment’s thought. He promptly came to where I sat and began lovingly caressing the bark of the same tree. (This is the son who tells me I am beautiful, hand to my cheek, almost every day.) We literally ended up hugging the tree together. Then, via his prompting, planning and subsequent stick gathering, we began tapping out a rhythm on its trunk with two fallen branches that, in his words, “told the tree it was beautiful, and we loved it.” **found this sweet little story on learninglabsconsulting blog while looking up tree-hugging which, cringe away, is one of my favorite things. Run your fingers on bark or press your chest (I guess you can be clothed, if you insist) against an old oak; there is an undeniable magic there that even science confirms in its own straight-line way by noting the release of oxytocin. I think now more than ever it’s important to seek the grounding enchantments of nature 🌱 Photo by my sweet one @samhoch