I received a lovely Christmas present of Marie Popova’s book The Universe in Verse where she wrote this about trees:
“Trees hungrily absorb red light – the longer wavelengths of the visible spectrum – but the neighboring infrared passes straight through them. Under the canopy, where fierce competition for these wavelengths rages, red light is depleted and infrared dominates. Even though trees cannot absorb infrared, they, unlike humans, can ‘see’ it with chemical photoreceptors called phytochromes.
The ratio between the two types of light tells trees how much to grow and in which direction, with phytochromes acting as on-off switches for growth.
An abundance of red light under uncrowded skies turns the switch on, signaling to the tree to spread its branches wide into any gaps in the canopy; in the crowded shade where infrared dominates, the switch turns off, reducing the growth of side branches and prompting the tree to grow straight up, reaching for the open sky above.”
Trees remind us when life feels “shady” to find, turn, and grow in the direction where light is shining in our life. That’s why trees have fascinating shapes and branches. They are always seeking the light and growing in that direction.
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On Emotions 