Like a tree - Jean Shinoda Bolen

Showing how the plight of trees, women and the planet are connected, LIKE A TREE grew out of bestselling author, Jean Bolen's practice of walking among tall trees and mourning the loss of a Monterey pine that was cut down in her neighbourhood. It is poetic and educational, inspirational, spiritual and down to earth, covering the subject of trees from anatomy and physiology to trees as archetypal and sacred symbols.It is. also. a strong and positive call to ecological activism, with stories of organisations and the 'tree people' who are trying to save our forests and the planet: Greenpeace's Kleercut campaign to save the Boreal Forest, Wangari Maathai's Greenbelt Movement, Julia Butterfly Hill's campaign to save a California Redwood. Bolen offers a unique vision based on metaphysics, psychology, mythology and global gender politics. She writes eloquently about deforestation, global warming and overpopulation, as well as the work of Amnesty International and the UN Status on Women Commission. Bolen takes the reader though a complex and diverse forest of knowledge, from archaeological to mystical. She examines the tree as a powerful symbol in creation stories, in religions and as an archetype of women - providers of nourishment and material needs.

Jean Shinoda Bolen is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. She is, also, a leading activist for environmental issues and issues concerning the plight of women and girls in developing countries.