The wellness tree

There is a tree in a community garden. Every day, patients at a nearby mental hospital gather to sit beneath its branches or lean against its trunk.

The tree was a gift to the community several decades ago. It was a seedling then; now it is massive, solid and beautiful. A tree cannot have emotions and yet it does. It is serene.

Ten years ago the garden’s caretakers noticed people had begun to sit under the tree. They were calm, happy and smiling, sitting in the dappled shadows, with green and growing things around them.

Staff at that