Saturday, December 13, 2014

Spend the Night in a Tree

Rating: ***

A short and sweet article on how spending the night in a tree can relieve you from regretful things you’ve done in your life.

Spending the night in a tree is a great exercise that offers a graduated out-of-body experience that can almost be like attending your own funeral. The first thing you have to do for this is to find a tree in a suburban or urban area. A tree in a lighted park or a cemetery can do the trick. You’d want to get higher than what car headlights can see. You want to be completely invisible, so wear black clothing. Bring nothing but bungee cords so that you’re safe up there. As you sit up in the tree, listen to footsteps, conversations and music from passing cars. As it gets later in the night, you’ll start to feel the chill of isolation. Self-pity starts to intrude. Resist any temptation to get down from the tree. Only when the birds start chirping in the morning, descend from the tree carefully. Once you get home, take a hot shower, then phone and apologize to all the ones you’ve offended. You will forgive yourself.

To me this seems like a weird way to forgive yourself, but I can’t judge something until I’ve tried it. This would make for an interesting night, though. It would make you think a lot. Get you away from the world. Perhaps, if I’m ever in need to forget the past and move on with myself, I’ll try spending the night in a tree.


Dunn, Katherine. Spend the Night in a Tree. December, 1998. Outside: Number 73 (pg 90).   

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