{"id":7230,"date":"2011-03-05T10:02:58","date_gmt":"2011-03-05T15:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertlpeters.com\/news\/?p=7230"},"modified":"2017-12-01T02:02:59","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T21:02:59","slug":"we-are-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/we-are-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"We are trees&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7232\" title=\"TicinoTree\" src=\"http:\/\/www.robertlpeters.com\/news2013\/wp-content\/uploads\/TicinoTree.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"437\" height=\"318\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>What if we were more like trees, converting carbon<br \/>\ndioxide and releasing oxygen?<br \/>\nWe live in a bite-back, one-up world where anger,<br \/>\nbitterness, resentment, prejudice and violence are<br \/>\nthe soul\u2019s carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n<p>We could receive curses, then give blessings.<br \/>\nWe could get manipulated, then speak the truth.<br \/>\nWe could be spat upon, then respond with grace.<br \/>\nWe could be struck, but not strike back.<\/p>\n<p>The thing about trees is that they need to absorb<br \/>\nCO2 in order to live and grow.<br \/>\nWe could do the same. We could absorb hate,<br \/>\ndiscrimination, judgment and harm, and use<br \/>\nforgiveness to demonstrate healing and love.<\/p>\n<p>This would free us from having to avenge our own<br \/>\ninjustices and allow us to open our arms, welcoming<br \/>\nthose who are often unwelcome and unwanted.<br \/>\nPhotosynthesis and forgiveness are miracles of life.<br \/>\nWithout them, the world is a hostile place.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\"><em>\u2014Ryan McCormick, from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.geezmagazine.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Geez<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>. What if we were more like trees, converting carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen? We live in a bite-back, one-up world where anger, bitterness, resentment, prejudice and violence are the soul\u2019s carbon dioxide. We could receive curses, then give blessings. We could get manipulated, then speak the truth. We could be spat upon, then respond [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,12,13,14,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7230"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15663,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230\/revisions\/15663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}