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Speaker 2: Hi, it's Louis Wanier. I'm calling in for a row Collins.
Speaker 1: Ooh, I love the way you pronounce your last name.
I would have never gone that direction. Wow. Is it French?
What is it?
Speaker 3: It's with its French?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Now, how do we transfer that to somebody who's going
to be going through Barnes and Noble or even shopping
on Amazon so they can say, you should see who
I'm reading today, Louise Wanna.
Speaker 2: It's one y A W A N N I E R.
But the most important thing is the name of the.
Speaker 1: Yes, it is Yeah. Tree spirits around the world. Now
you're speaking my street when you have a title like
that on the outside of your book. Because I live
in a forest here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. We
planted seventeen hundred trees in nineteen ninety seven, and this
forest is my life. So I instantly became connected to
your book.
Speaker 3: That's amazing. What got you to do that?
Speaker 1: I think it's because I'm from Montana and when I
came into this area, I saw that the trees were sick,
and in my heart I felt like, Okay, what do
you want to do about it. You have the power
to bring more North Carolina trees into this area. Do
not go to a home depot or Low's and buy
candy coated trees. You've got to make it natural. And
you should see all the beautiful wildlife that is here
because we did keep it natural.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, that's amazing, really amazing.
Speaker 2: Well, if there's an opportunity for me to come and
read in schools in that area, oh, I have to
figure that out.
Speaker 1: Oh well, we are Tree City usas they call us,
So we need to get you here to do something
like that. All right, So now what was your connection
to it all? I mean what were because I mean,
trees are one of the greatest storytellers of all time,
as are rocks. But I mean your focus is on
tree spirits around the world.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean for me, as a little girl growing up
in London, I was in an area which had a
lot of trees, and I don't know why, but I
just started seeing.
Speaker 3: For me, the trees kind of came alive.
Speaker 2: I started seeing or imagining what I'm now calling tree spirits.
I don't think I articulated that way myself, but my
whole life and more and more as i've as I
you know, traveled around the world, I just started taking
a lot of photographs and I found myself taking a
lot of photographs of what.
Speaker 3: I see in the trees.
Speaker 2: And the journey has been to realize that other children
see and delight in discovery and seeing and imagining the
different spirits that are there.
Speaker 3: And it becomes a way to.
Speaker 2: I guess, touch nature really fully and to come really present.
Speaker 3: So for me, it's just been very nourishing.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, because one of the eye opening experiences that
I went through was to the fact that, you know,
just because you've got the tree above the ground, have
you ever looked beneath the ground to see what's going
on down there with the fung guy? Because these trees
need that fung guy, and those mushrooms in order to
communicate with other trees and so and so. Yeah, you're right.
When children go in and they learn more about the trees,
all of a sudden, it's about the soil. All of
a sudden, it's about the history of the land that
you're walking upon. I mean, there's so much involved, all
because of the tree spirit.
Speaker 2: Yes, And I also say to the children, what is
really special about trees is.
Speaker 3: That we need each other.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we breathe the trees, and the trees
breathe us, so we breathe out.
Speaker 1: Do you believe in the theory of you know, because
we can stare at the sky and see cloud formations
all day and if you weren't there, you missed out
on a great cloud formation. But with a tree, the
way it's formed, it's always going to be there. And
you can bring your friends back to it and say,
see what I mean, there it is. Do you see it?
I see it?
Speaker 3: Well, yes, and no. It's there for many, many years.
But it does change.
Speaker 2: I have a few of the trees in the book
that I've been back to visit, and they do change.
Speaker 3: They do because trees grow just like we grow.
Speaker 2: Right, But the basic the basic formations and spirits are there.
So what's really fun also, I think is that the
book teaches children that we all see things differently. And
one of the things that Tilly, who's securious, smells from
the first book Tree Spirits she goes then on this
trip around the world is she makes little comments as
we go through and go to different countries and meet
different spirits, but.
Speaker 3: She keeps asking what do you see?
Speaker 2: Because when I read with children in the schools, they
all see different things.
Speaker 1: That's so interesting that you bring that up, because you're
absolutely right. In fact, I was going to ask you
about Tilly to find out if we're going to start
seeing Tilly on t shirts as well as writing instruments
and things like that, because it's such a great marketing tool.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I think Tilly is going to have a
life of her own.
Speaker 2: But you know, we're just at the beginning here now
with the book has only come up a couple of
weeks ago, so we're looking forward to having everyone meet
Tilly and take a trip.
Speaker 3: Around the world with her.
Speaker 2: So are she visits actually ten different lands, and we
go around the world, and we go across six continents,
Oh my god. And she teaches you little things about
the trees in the different countries. Like one of the
trees we visit, for example, is in Palma Majorca, which
is one of the two places in the book. I've
not been to myself, but my cousin sent the photograph
of the grand olive tree in the center of the
town in Palma Majorca, and it's actually the oldest olive
tree in the world as far as I understand, it's enormous,
all kinds of it definitely has more than the one
spirit that I see, because as I share it with children,
they often see five, six, ten different ones.
Speaker 1: I got to share something with you because I think
you're going to understand more about this and we've got it.
We've got to spread that that energy to those that go, oh,
it's just a tree, chop it down. It's a weed,
because go ahead, go ahead. Yesterday, what happened was is
that all of the people were returning to the gaza
area and a man turns to the news camera and
he says, they took away my trees. I fell to
my knees because I mean I literally was like going,
wait a second. You know, all around the world, like
you're expressing inside this book, trees are not just an
American thing. It's around the world.
Speaker 2: It is around the world, and trees are what we breathe.
Trees breathe in the carbon dioxide that we breathe out,
and we breathe in the oxygen that they breathe out.
Speaker 3: Trees are crucial for humanity, for our life.
Speaker 1: Please do not move. We'll be right back with Louise
one A coming up next. The name of her book,
Tree Spirits Around the World. Photographer and ya author Louise
one A. I love the fact that that you're gearing
it toward the young readers, and the reason being is
because I think that's where tomorrow is there. If we
don't get them to start talking about it and get
back to an arbor day or something like that. Oh
my god. I mean I think that's my first love
in life was that there's going to be a tree
here one day. Really, I don't believe you, and then
all of a sudden it becomes something.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Sometimes, Also it's fun to grow up with a tree.
I mean, just as we grow up with different book series,
we can grow up with a tree. I planted a
ginko tree maybe almost fifteen years ago, and now it's
a big, tall tree that has seasons along with the
seasons of the year, but it started out as a
tiny sprig. And I think, you know, we need to
spend more time with the trees.
Speaker 1: I got to ask you this, then, Louise, because when
you're talking about a tree that's been with you for
so long, how do you deal personally when it's time
to prune the trees? Because That's what I'm doing right now.
And I do sit with my trees, and this is
the martial artist coming out in me. I will ah,
I will ask the tree, can I please give you
a haircut? Can I please? Because I don't want the
winter to come to break you at your trunk. I
want to get rid of this this heavyweight right now
so that we can be together for more than just
one more winter.
Speaker 2: Well, we all need to have adjustments, don't we. We
need to cut our hair, we need to through our hair,
we need to exercise our bodies.
Speaker 3: Though.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think, what did the trees say to
you when you ask them? Because I do think that
we can hear their answers.
Speaker 1: I feel a vibration and I sit there and I say,
you're so insane. I go no, I swear to God,
I feel a vibration that's like when I walk down
because we have a ninety five foot drop from the
front all the way back to the back of the
forest before he hit the stream. And so every one
of those are They were my six inch seedlings and
they're now twenty five to thirty feet tall. Those are
my babies, right.
Speaker 2: Well, you're helping them to grow so that they can
be strong.
Speaker 1: But it has to start with you too, because I
believe that the seed provides the paper, which provides the
imagination an opportunity to escape. Therefore, that paper is there,
we teach it to a child, and now we've got
more seeds in the ground for a new tomorrow.
Speaker 2: And I think that the beginnings of the imagination is
also the beginnings of the stories, which is the beginnings
of creating all the possibilities for our lives. I don't
want to sound too corny here, but.
Speaker 1: Oh it's not corny.
Speaker 2: The most important thing is to have children put their
screens away. In fact, some teachers call this the antidote
to screen time. Yeah, but it's a way of you know,
because the book asks a lot of open ended questions.
Speaker 3: It's a lot.
Speaker 2: It enables a child to travel in many possible directions.
Speaker 1: Well, don't you think the rhyming also, it should be
included in that because we all, I mean, it doesn't
matter what age you are, whether you know you get
into rap music or soul or top forty, people still
like listening to lyrics, and you provide those lyrics inside
these pages.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Yes, that's true.
Speaker 2: And for me it's a I mean, it's just fun, right,
it's fun to And now every time I look at
a tree, a new rhyme is coming coming towards.
Speaker 1: So now, now do you is there something I know
you said you're in the beginning process of this, but
at the same time, I really feel like there's a
there's a John Lennon moment here where you could take
all of these photographs and the rhyming and put it
inside galleries that travel across the country.
Speaker 2: I would certainly love to do that, and I'm I'm
fingers crossed one day we'll have that opportunity.
Speaker 3: That is a goal.
Speaker 1: Wow. See, I love where you've got this vision and
you're doing with it. So you also bring activation, which
I'm sure you're planting inside these schools.
Speaker 3: Yes, that is what I'm intending. But we'll see. We
just don't know, one little step at a time.
Speaker 1: But when you go to those schools, because I mean,
that's one of the things that I've always put a
lot of concentration on when it comes to students and writing.
And I realize that we're there so they'll read, but
at the same time, I also want to teach them
how to write. And that's what I feel from this book, Louise,
is the fact that you're not just saying, here is
this brilliant story, but you know you too can do this.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's a very very important thing. I leave them
an activity sheet there.
Speaker 2: It's downloadable from tree spiritsbook dot com and it's free.
Speaker 3: To all the schools.
Speaker 2: But there's an activity sheet which also encourages them that
follows up the book and more information about where you
can buy.
Speaker 3: The book is also at tree spiritsbook dot com.
Speaker 1: You're going to think I'm a freak, but I have
written about this and I've put it on iHeartRadio a
million times. I do not believe that we have the
most beautiful part of the tree as human beings. I
think the most beautiful part is beneath the soil, and
I would love to know more about that rooting system
because it's doing something down there that we're not seeing
up here.
Speaker 2: Well, what I understand is that it's helping the trees
to communicate and actually support each other as community. Scientists
start learning more and more about that. And I have
also run into an artist who has taken recordings of
the trees, big tall redwood trees in northern California, and he.
Speaker 3: Shared those with me. I can hear the trees talking,
if you will.
Speaker 2: There's definitely more about trees that we don't yet understand,
and there's more about all and so many species in
our planet that we don't yet understand fully. And that's
why we need more and more girls and boys and
boys and girls to grow up and become scientists.
Speaker 1: Also, that's so interesting that you bring that up, because
I've written about that a lot as well. Because I
hear voices, I hear music, and I will sit there
and I will do the research trying to figure out
why is it that I do this? And one of
the questions that always comes up in my studies is
that is that it'll say how many trees are you
surrounded by? Now? Because you're picking up on frequencies that
the trees are picking up on and they're passing it forward.
So you believe in that theory too.
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. It's you know, I just wish we could
respect him even more instead of buzz on these little
monkeys down because you know they're beautiful monkeys.
Speaker 3: We need to grow our trees. Yeah too.
Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about what
you're doing? I realize this is the beginning steps, But
you know what, though, I know I'll be talking to
you in ten twenty five years from now and we're
gonna and we're still gonna be talking about trees and
all the lessons that you're learning.
Speaker 3: Thank you well if you will.
Speaker 2: The best place is to either go to bookshop dot org,
which sells the book and helps all the independent booksellers.
They share their profits with the independent booksellers, or to
go to our work upsite Tree Spirits book all one
word dot com and there are a number of different
resources and links and other information, and there is included
a number of videos of children who've experienced the book
and their response to the book.
Speaker 3: It's under the reviews page.
Speaker 1: What's your favorite part of the tree to photograph. Is
it the roots? Is it the first branch that comes out?
Is it or not? In the tree? Is it something
at the very top, because you know that when that
leaf falls in the fall, that to me is what
I call the silent dance. And they dance so beautifully
as they fall to the soil.
Speaker 3: I love the way you're expressing it. For me.
Speaker 2: It's the spirit that's speaking with me. But they're not
in every tree, but I do find them in so
many trees.
Speaker 1: Wow, I love where your heart is. I am so
glad that you've released this book.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you, and thank you for bringing me
to help tell more people about it.
Speaker 3: Oh that's so helpful.
Speaker 1: It's what it's all about. If we don't come together
as a community and help share with people that you know,
being a tree hugger is one thing, but being a
tree lover is another.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I'll come back anytime. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 3: Okay, I will thank you