PINE trees grow where it is too cold, too rocky, and too steep for deciduous trees. They cover great expanses of the earth and provide much of the oxygen we breathe. The most common pine tree of temperate North America is white pine (Pinus strobus), the Tree of the Great Peace, and the tree of the Great Mistake. The symbol of the Great Peaceful Nations – the Iroquois – is an eagle perched in a white pine with weapons of war buried at its roots.
Pine is the tree of Winter Solstice; pine is the Christmas tree. The evergreen brightness of pine in the dark days is balm to the heart and spirit. The scent of pine is soothing and uplifting at the same time. How do you feel when in a pinewood?
The needles of white pine, collected at any time and steeped in apple cider vinegar, make a delicious homemade balsamic vinegar at a fraction of the cost of the real stuff. Pine vinegar is loaded with vitamin C, too, and helps prevent colds.
If the advice in old herbals to dose animals with turpentine has left you wondering how the animal survived the cure, here’s answer: Before turpentine was distilled from petroleum, it was “made” by tincturing the bark of pine. All parts of the pine are antiseptic and beneficial against organisms in the upper respiratory tract. It’s easy to make your own tincture; use 198 proof alcohol; pine resin is hydrophobic. Use your pine tincture to disinfect wounds and counter respiratory problems.
Pine sap/resin was used to seal canoes – and cuts. It is one of the resins that bees use to make propolis. If you’ve ever leaned on an oozing pine tree and found your hands black, or worse yet, sat on a freshly cut pie stump and permanently blackened your favorite jeans, then you know why ointments made with pine sap are called “black” salves. The antiseptic, vulnerary, and wound healing abilities of pine are used by all indigenous people, and they have a variety of clever ways of using the bark and sap/resin to heal wounds and broken bones.
In the days when Britain was a great naval power, northeast North American was a territory worth fighting off because it was extraordinarily rich in for oak (for shipbuilding) and white pine (for masts). Pine is still valued as a softwood, for furniture, houses, tools, and a wide variety of other uses. My area is rich is small local sawmills milling white pine rough-cut boards that I have used in every building I have erected over the past forty years.
Pine brings such joy to my heart. It seems always to be near. Pines grow in the city. Pines grow in the forest. Pines grow in parks, by themselves. Pines grow in groves, colonizing the earth so the succession of trees can arise and be in beauty.
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Trees are everywhere. Breathe with the trees every chance you get. Cultivate an “attitude of gratitude,” as Grandmother Twylah used to admonish us. Your life, your corpus, and your spirit will benefit.
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