Sunday, March 31, 2024

The woods and me

I've always loved the woods.  While many people prefer the mountains or beach, my sanctuary has always been the forest.  I unfortunately don't get to experience that often since I live in a city, but last week I visited a friend in Vermont and we took a lovely walk among the trees.

It had never occurred to me before, but the woods are in my name!  My last name, Lin (pronounced lín) literally means woods in Mandarin; its character depicts two tree glyphs next to each other:


One of these glyphs by itself, 木 (pronounced ) means wood, as in the materials, whereas three of them, 森 (pronounced sēn and often paired with lín as 森林) means forest.

Perhaps that's why I've always felt so comforted among the trees. 💚

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