The Indigenous theologian Randy Woodley tells a story about his mother taking him into the woods when he was a child. She would introduce him to the trees as friends.

Think about that for a moment. An introduction assumes a relationship is possible. Someone is already there, living their life, before we arrive.

Often we view things in our environment as, well, things and only in relation to their usefulness to us. For a child, a tree can become a place to climb or somewhere to hide. For an adult, it might become shade, lumber, or a problem when its roots lift the pavement.

Woodley invites us to notice the tree as a living being, and to consider its own place and agency within a living community.