From The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben,

“When you know that trees experience pain and have memories and that tree parents live together with their children, then you can no longer just chop them down and disrupt their lives with larger machines…
We have learned that mother trees recognize and talk with their kin, shaping future generations. In addition, injured trees pass their legacies on to their neighbours, affecting gene regulation, defence chemistry, and resilience in the forest community…
It appears that nutrient exchange and helping neighbours in times of need is the rule, and this leads to the conclusion that forests are superorganisms with interconnections much like ant colonies…
The trees in a forest care for each other, sometimes even going so far as to nourish the stump of a felled tree for centuries after it was cut down by feeding it sugars and other nutrients, and so keeping it alive. Only some stumps are thus nourished. Perhaps they are the parents of the trees that make up the forest of today.”

Tradition ascribes this day in the year 610 CE as the date on which the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) began to receive the revelation later transcribed as the Qur’an, which begins,
“In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of all the worlds,
The Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful,
Master of the day of Requital,
You do we serve and You do we ask for help.
Guide us on the right path,
The path of those upon whom You have bestowed grace,
those who incur no wrath, and who go not astray.”

Thought for the day will be taking a break now and will be back on 1st September.

“The sanest man sets up no deed, lays down no law,
Takes everything that happens as it comes,
As something to animate, not to appropriate,
To earn, not to own,
To accept naturally without self-importance:
If you never assume importance,
You never lose it.”
Lao Tzu (BCE 604 – 531), Chinese philosopher and author of the Tao Te Ching, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.”
Mary Oliver

“A sharp mind will find a truth for itself.
A humble spirit will find a truth higher than itself.
Truth is not the property of intellectuals, but of those who know how to escape their own selves.”
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

Today is the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.
‘Hiroshima Child’ by Nazim Hikmet
“I come and stand at every door
But none can hear my silent tread
I knock and yet remain unseen
For I am dead for I am dead
I’m only seven though I died
In Hiroshima long ago
I’m seven now as I was then
When children die they do not grow
My hair was scorched by swirling flame
My eyes grew dim my eyes grew blind
Death came and turned my bones to dust
And that was scattered by the wind
I need no fruit I need no rice
I need no sweets nor even bread
I ask for nothing for myself
For I am dead for I am dead
All that I need is that for peace
You fight today you fight today
So that the children of this world
Can live and grow and laugh and play”

“The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself – the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us – that’s where it’s at…
Find the good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it and you’ll start believing it.”
Jesse Owens, winner of four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympic games, who won the 200m in the world record time of 20.7 seconds on this day.

“Love is a reciprocal feeling. Just as water will mirror the face that peers into it similarly love is a reflection of hearts. Rhythm is the basis of life, not steady forward progress. The forces of creation, destruction, and preservation have a whirling, dynamic interaction. We must learn not to disassociate the airy flower from the earthy root, for the flower that is cut off from its root fades, and its seeds are barren, whereas the root, secure in mother earth, can produce flower after flower and bring their fruit to maturity.”
The Zohar (Kabbalah), first printed on this day in 1558

“To worship is to stand in awe under a heaven of stars,
before a flower, a leaf in sunlight, or a grain of sand.
To worship is to be silent, receptive, before a tree astir with the wind,
or the passing of a cloud.
To worship is to work with dedication and skill;
it is to pause from work and listen to a strain of music.
To worship is to sing with the singing beauty of the earth;
it is to listen through a storm to the still small voice within.”
Jacob Trapp (1899 – 1992), Unitarian Universalist minister

Welcome Morning by Anne Sexton (1928 – 1974),
“There is joy
in all:
in the hair I brush each morning,
in the Cannon towel, newly washed,
that I rub my body with each morning,
in the chapel of eggs I cook
each morning,
in the outcry from the kettle
that heats my coffee
each morning,
in the spoon and the chair
that cry “hello there, Anne”
each morning,
in the godhead of the table
that I set my silver, plate, cup upon
each morning.
All this is God,
right here in my pea-green house
each morning
and I mean,
though often forget,
to give thanks,
to faint down by the kitchen table
in a prayer of rejoicing
as the holy birds at the kitchen window
peck into their marriage of seeds.
So while I think of it,
let me paint a thank-you on my palm
for this God, this laughter of the morning,
lest it go unspoken.
The Joy that isn’t shared, I’ve heard,
dies young.”