Healing Wounds

Inside every cell in our bodies is an amazing, complex system of DNA repair that maintains the integrity of our genes.  Our cellular DNA is subject to attack by reactive oxygen radicals produced by normal cellular processes (why we want to have antioxidants in our diets) and by environmental agents including chemical toxins and radiation.  There are 130 known human DNA repair genes whose proteins identify the damage, excise or cut out the damaged area, replicate a new strand using the information in the ‘good’ strand, then bind it all together again.  This process is happening in every cell in our bodies every day of our lives!  On a somewhat larger scale, we also have an intricate system of wound healing that includes vasoconstriction and blood clotting if bleeding occurs and an influx of inflammatory cells to cleanse the wound, clean up debris of damaged tissue, and promote the growth of new blood vessels, endothelial cells, muscle tissue, and collagen.  Immune cells, growth factors, cytokines, and many others are all activated when an injury or wound occurs.

Plants also have DNA and wound repair systems.  As infrequently as we think about our own wound repair, we think even less of the trees and other plants around us.  A number of trees in our yard and woods have been damaged by various things.  Trauma on the trunk of this young birch was probably from sun scald.  It occurs on the south or southwest side of the tree in the winter when the bark freezes following warming of the trunk by the sun.  But this is not a recent injury–notice how the new tissue is rolling in and over the dead wood of the wound.

Another late winter wound is frost crack when the water in the phloem and xylem expand and contract at different rates.  This creates a sudden, long vertical injury accompanied by a loud shot sound.

A common wound in young trees is when a person mows or weed eats too closely to the tree, damaging the bark.  Considerable trauma occurs when tree stakes are not removed after a reasonable time.  This maple tree was staked with a chain to prevent it from leaning.  By the time we bought our place, the tree was growing around the chain.  The healing process continues since we removed the restriction.

Another injury of neglect is when something is tied around a tree and not removed.  This pine tree had a clothesline tied around it, causing a wound around the whole tree.

One of the previous owners of our place–many years ago–used the oak trees on the wooded hillside as fence posts for his barbed wire fence and didn’t remove the wire from the trees.  More than half a dozen oaks have barbed wire sticking out through the bark.  Many have scars where the barbed wire is, but it is amazing how much healing has occurred, how the tree has integrated the wire into itself and has kept on growing.

Routine care and maintenance of trees also causes injury.  Whenever we prune a branch from a tree, we create a wound.

Immediately, the cellular repair mechanisms get to work to begin the process of sealing the wound with callus layers.

Mother Nature and her harsh winters and changing conditions can cause damage to trees.  Neglect and abuse by clueless caretakers can create and perpetuate wounds.  Even the intentional, respectful care by a tree lover can create an injury.  It takes years for a tree to heal a wound, leaving it vulnerable to disease and insect damage, but from the DNA level up, the tree is always working to repair itself.  The birch tree exemplifies the healing and growth process: how wounds are healed, how the old is sloughed away, and how the pristine cells create the new and improved tree.

We are all wounded.  Life can be traumatic–Mother Nature can assault us with floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes that take away our homes and our feelings of safety.  Ignorant people can wound us with words, actions, inactions, and physical harm.  Being in the wrong place at the wrong time can impart lasting impairment.  Institutions, cultural hierarchies, biases, and dogmatic thinking can leave a trail of trauma in their wake with no accountability.  Loss of a loved one by death or abandonment wrenches the heart and leaves a permanent scar.  Even unintentional damage happens in the most intentionally loving families–a move to a new place, a career change, or a divorce.

The good news is we are built to heal!  Our physiology–beginning with our DNA–has complex systems in place to get rid of the bad and restore homeostasis or balance.  Our smart body is programmed to maintain its integrity. Grief is the bitter balm that begins the healing process of our minds and spirits.  It assesses the damage, stops the bleeding, cleans up the debris of the trauma, and rallies the troops to begin the rebuilding.  Healing our wounds takes time, often years, and includes constant alterations or remodeling of our cells or our thoughts.  Eventually we integrate the pain and the loss into our daily self.  We carry it around with us.  We are not ashamed of our scar.  We are restored, but to a new level–one that is burnished by fire and polished with Love–and we keep on growing.