To Hug A Tree

At the recent Nokia filmmaking workshop,I asked all the participants outside for a moment...and to gather themselves round a very big tree negotiating through undergrowth carefully to get right to the trunk of the tree.They found my request weird...they look at me with curious eyes.Then I told them to all hold hands and hug the tree... hug the tree...hug the tree...and say tree beautiful tree. It's a scene from my new mobifilm...that is a film shot on a mobile phone. Wielding the N93, our camera stanley stands a few feet away capturing a scene of people hugging a tree.

Weird?

Most conservationists i know...tell people the earth is going to die and that we should and need to take aggressive steps to save the planet. However, alot of times, it falls on deaf ears as people are living in the hustle and bustle of life running from one concrete air con building to another and cannot have more disregard for the planet. But the situation is dire. It is evident...haven't you found yourself pulling your collar or wiping your sweat saying the weather is getting hotter? Haven't you turn a page of the paper and glanced a weird weather phenomenon?

Recently, watching the film 'An Inconvenient Truth' at YTL's climate change week really moved me...our planet is dying and if we love our lives...we should take aggressive steps to counter global warming and save this planet, our home. Am I starting to sound like any other environmentalist? Yes...and like any school teacher my calls is valid but is there anyone listening?

I felt, the most profound moment watching An Inconvenient Truth lies at the begining of the whole film...when Al Gore spoke of how he'd sink his feet into the mud by the stream, see the leaves ruffling, hear the birds chirping and wondered...what have i forgotten?

A tree. when we were monkeys...it provided us shade and shelter,it provided us food in the fruits it bore and the animals living around it that we hunt. It balances nature playing the key role in the food chain, absorbing decomposing materials(nitrate) in its roots and turning it back into leaves that eventually feed us, it gives us oxygen that we may breathe...need I say more?

Truly...how many of us have touched a tree in the last year? last 5 years? be honest...we tend to walk around trees. Do we stop and marvel at a tree? Do we say thank you to a tree? Do we even at the very least recognise what it is for us in our lives? Do answer honestly...

I think that no amount of preaching on why we should use both side of a paper,conserve water, conserve electricity and recycle etc etc...will take any effect or make any difference if we stay indeifference at heart...if we don't first start one thing...to love our planet...to at the very least love a tree that is rooted deep into the planet and our ecology.

The image of a seedling, a little plant is always used to resemble hope. There is still hope...so long as we first start believing in it and simply remember that our lives relies on the health of our planet...put aside our greed(honestly alot of us do have enough),our work and our self...and put our planet first.

Start small...simply by loving a tree...so go out and hug a tree...

At first, the participants were trying to avoid throwing their bodies on the dirty bark of a tree...but once the participants started hugging the tree...a weirdness sets in and giggles started to erupt...slowly turning into laughs...there was a sense of togetherness and yet there was a sense of silliness...and then... :)

Does anyone need to teach you how to treat your girlfriend? No. First love the planet...and you'll learn and be motivated on what to do to save it...

Froggie recycle almost every scrap of paper(has collected so many recycling receipt, it iself is worth recycling), try to water his plants from water collected in the rain, off room lights when not in use, turn off computer monitors, walk about 15mins to 1 utama even when there's a car,saparates batteries from other waste and try to minimise his ecological footsteps in any manner possible.He enjoys nature very very much when with pixie...whom he also loves very much...