Daily Verse | 1 Samuel 12:23
“As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you.”

Monday’s Reading: 1 Samuel 13-15

Monday and not sure if you noticed, but spring is in the air. The Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere was yesterday, March 20. Personally, I’m eager for the warmer temps and the fading away of the snow and cold.

Over the weekend I received in the mail a nicely designed brochure from Davey Tree, a national tree and lawn care service. We’ve used them off and on for the last decade or so when our budget allowed for it.

The brochure was not your run-of-the-mill tri-fold on shiny photocopy paper. It was a 12-page, full color, full bleed, bi-fold and stapled print job on heavy card stock. Being in the communications business, I know they’re expensive to produce, not to mention the cost of mailing it.

Davey invested a lot of money in creating it and sending it to who knows how many thousands of homes.

Now, if you’re a business and you’re going to spend that kind of money on a handsome brochure, you want to be sure that it’s communicating something important, that it’s differentiating you in the mind of your target audience and, most importantly, that it’s driving new business and customer retention. That’s what marketing does.

As a business, everything you do is focused on making money, which is what keeps you in business. So what did they choose to promote in the brochure?

Climate change and “tree meditation.”

Really.

The cover gives the title of the publication as the spring edition of “Growing Together.” The first two pages list the table of contents and a page of introduction addresses the reader as, “Dear Tree Lover.” Four-and-a-half pages are dedicated to climate change, two pages are dedicated to “Tree Meditation,” one page is dedicated to “tree-inspired haikus” (yes, you read that right) and one page is dedicated to “spring fertilization.” The back cover is the mailing address and a half-page maze activity—for the children, I presume.

Judging by the space allocated and word count, the main topic is climate change, followed by tree meditation or “forest bathing.”

Forest bathing?

See for yourself (click to enlarge):

I’m not taking a shot at Davey Tree. They are apparently as woke as any other company and find that in order to remain in good standing with the public, they have to toe the climate change line. According to ecochondriacs (term coined by Doug Wilson), trees are a sort of savior of the climate, providing oxygen, cleansing the air of CO₂ (carbon dioxide), improving air quality, conserving water and preventing soil erosion. A lot of that is covered on page 06 of the brochure under “How Trees Impact Climate Change.”

What is so curious to me is that a secular business that offers its services for money is promoting things like “mindfulness” and “presence”—it’s like they’re trying to care for your soul.

Now that you’ve become present, continue walking slowly and feeling each aspect of your experience. If you notice your mind wandering, don’t worry, just return to the present by focusing on your breathing and your senses. You may pause to marvel at a massive oak or listen to a babbling brook. Just follow your feet and immerse yourself in the moment.

What gives? Fully two-thirds of the booklet is about making an emotional connection to trees, while only one out of the 12 pages is dedicated to a particular service—spring fertilization—that Davey offers. And they only allot 133 words to tell me about that.

It’s a very interesting approach.

The whole section about “tree meditation or forest bathing” feels very much like worship—we go to the trees for healing and health. We write haikus in honor of the trees.

I’m not knocking the beauty of a forest or hiking through the woods. I’ve climbed mountains and hiked through forests and spent time in wide-open spaces that featured large trees on the landscape. It can be refreshing and a well-needed change of habitat for the mind and spirit.

I even see this “spiritual” element in my own company, which recently promoted a “kindness” campaign, is promoting personal “wellness,” and talks incessantly about including everyone. It sounds like what the Church should be doing.

Could it be that the Church has so failed in its mission to present Jesus Christ to the world that our modern marketplace is trying to address the inner needs of its employees and clients? There is no doubt that businesses are trying to minister to their workforce. I just don’t know if that’s because the Church has failed in its mission.

It’s probably part of it.

For those of us who follow Christ it’s in God that we’ll find not just reduced “stress, anxiety, depression, and anger” (as Davey says), but absolute inner peace through the Holy Spirit. The forest can only temporarily mask the anxiety or stress that we feel. God can remove it permanently. Kindness can be done under our own power, but can it be sustained over a lifetime?

Exit question: how many trees had to die to produce the sweet brochure that Davey Tree sent out?