To Speak for the Trees

My Life's Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest

By: Diana Beresford-Kroeger

Narrated by: Diana Beresford-Kroeger

Canadian botanist, biochemist and visionary Diana Beresford-Kroeger's startling insights into the hidden life of trees have already sparked a quiet revolution in how we understand our relationship to forests. Now, in a captivating account of how her life led her to these illuminating and crucial ideas, she shows us how forests can not only heal us but save the planet.

When Diana Beresford-Kroeger--whose father was a member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy and whose mother was an O'Donoghue, one of the stronghold families who carried on the ancient Celtic traditions--was orphaned as a child, she could have been sent to the Magdalene Laundries. Instead, the O'Donoghue elders, most of them scholars and freehold farmers in the Lisheens valley in County Cork, took her under their wing. Diana became the last ward under the Brehon Law. Over the course of three summers, she was taught the ways of the Celtic triad of mind, body and soul. This included the philosophy of healing, the laws of the trees, Brehon wisdom and the Ogham alphabet, all of it rooted in a vision of nature that saw trees and forests as fundamental to human survival and spirituality. Already a precociously gifted scholar, Diana found that her grounding in the ancient ways led her to fresh scientific concepts. Out of that huge and holistic vision have come the observations that put her at the forefront of her field: the discovery of mother trees at the heart of a forest; the fact that trees are a living library, have a chemical language and communicate in a quantum world; the major idea that trees heal living creatures through the aerosols they release and that they carry a great wealth of natural antibiotics and other healing substances; and, perhaps most significantly, that planting trees can actively regulate the atmosphere and the oceans, and even stabilize our climate.
This book is not only the story of a remarkable scientist and her ideas, it harvests all of her powerful knowledge about why trees matter, and why trees are a viable, achievable solution to climate change. Diana eloquently shows us that if we can understand the intricate ways in which the health and welfare of every living creature is connected to the global forest, and strengthen those connections, we will still have time to mend the self-destructive ways that are leading to drastic fires, droughts and floods.

This filled my soul

Coming upon my recent return from Ireland, this has renewed my faith in humanity. My visit included a tree planting project in Northern Ireland with the Woodland Trust - about 30 teens planting 30-40 native trees on a hillside in the bright sunny cold -perfect connection to this book.

a thing of beauty

I hope the author narrates the rest of her books!! what an amazing message and her voice only helps convey her passion and personality

Excellent and informative

I loved this weaving of historical, biographical and botanical information. It is a great book

Captivating & full of wisdom

I loved hearing Diana read the story of her life to me through this audiobook. She has so much wisdom in regards to the plants around her. This is a must read and I can’t wait to read her other books. I can only hope to be as impactful to the world as she has been.

Inspiring

i feel so fortunate to have found the work of this incredible woman and to have been able to hear her speak about it herself.