Tom Brown Jr. tells the story of how the concept of treepreaching was introduced to him. As Tom was growing up in the 50s and 60s, Stalking Wolf, an ancient Apache Scout, became his teacher and mentor for over a decade. Once, after a particularly difficult day at school, Tom went to join Stalking Wolf in the woods, which was his daily practice. As he approached Stalking Wolf, Tom was already ranting about negative experiences from that day. The old man held up his hand for the boy to stop, pointed to the woods, and told him to go and “tell it to the trees”. It took some convincing but Tom finally went to the woods to express his problems to the forest. As he began doing so, he felt a little self conscious, but periodically heard Stalking Wolf in the distance instructing him further: “louder grandson!” and, “with passion grandson!” After a while he felt something take over, and began ranting about his troubles like an indignant preacher. He unloaded his burdens to the forest around him until he began feeling emptied. Then a miracle happened, as insights, solutions, and proper courses of action rushed in to fill the void. At that point the exchange with the forest became more like a conversation.

 

The regular practice of treepreaching played a major role in teaching Tom to speak publicly and teach groups. At a given moment during any treepreaching session, he would find the words pouring out effortlessly from a deep internal place. His pure self had been uncovered by the released burdens and made itself known. Tom often says at classes, “if you believe me you’re a fool; prove me right or prove me wrong”. The songs on the Treepreacher album reflect in part my personal experiences resulting from the application and testing of such teachings in my day to day life, and would probably not exist without The Tracker School.