Discerning Nature

Written By Devorah Brous

Maybe you feel a gentle breeze move through your hair as the sugars and starches in tree roots begin to rise through the xylem and phloem of tree branches near you. With the return of birdsong, maybe you can glean the slightest hint of bud swell, and feel a stir of possibility awaken from within. Maybe you begin to release winter atrophy, and stretch slumber out of the body in favor of a discerning exploration of what is regenerating around and within you. The elongated shadows of dawn are slowly shifting.

Jewish mystics, the Kabbalists of the 16th century, invited our gaze from the affairs of the world to the barely perceptible changes in nature and the medicine of fruit, nut, and seed, pit, skin, and flower.  

If Tu B’Shevat during an ancient Sabbatical year is more than just a one-day a year celebration of trees and their superhuman traits, it is becoming a cogent call to decarbonize. While we absolutely must plant more forests to sequester carbon and mitigate the effects of climate chaos – this year, consider resisting the culture of urgency and instead, composting. Maybe that looks like anchoring SB1383 and finding five minutes a day to compost - and feed trees and plants for years to come. 

Art by my beloved friend and fellow Jewitch, Zann Jacobrown, a Rabbi and artist living in Indianola.