Mother Trees, Connectivity and Natural Networks

This Mother's Day, expand your notion of "mother."

 In this real-life model of forest resilience and regeneration, Professor Suzanne Simard shows that all trees in a forest ecosystem are interconnected, with the largest, oldest, "mother trees" serving as hubs.

 The underground exchange of nutrients increases the survival of younger trees linked into the network of old trees.We find that in a forest, 1+1 equals more than 2.

The fungi Prof Simard is talking about here are called mycorrhizae- (I used to lecture on these and also neural networks.)

There is much here that can be applied playfully and imaginatively as metaphors to faith and spirituality- there are lots of spiritual motifs to explore, and this little gem of a short video certainly sets the imagination off in all directions..

 It reminds me of this great quote from Basil The Great at John Predmore's  Ignatian Spirituality Set The World Ablaze :

"A single plant, a blade of grass, is sufficient to occupy all your intelligence in the contemplation of the skill which produced it."

 See also a previous post on The Baobab Tree and Faith. I really should write a book on this ....one day maybe ? :-)) 

Who knows ?

The video links well to last Sunday's Gospel of  the nurturing vine and
 this week's post on Julian of Norwich's notion of God as father and mother.

Neural networks are now evolving rapidly into extraneous systems and the diversity of social networking has revolutionised the way we think about systems and how they operate too.

The video also talks about how death can contribute to new life ! 

All food for the creative and playful imagination...... and how we need to be rooted in the True Vine too.

Mother Trees Connect The Forest