A human life resembles a living tree.
No part stands alone. Everything is connected, and when a new story comes out, the whole tree can look different.
Scroll slowly and watch the tree grow.
One part at a time. You can also choose a part yourself, or tap the tree directly.
Tap a point on the tree, or choose a word.
Where would you like to begin?
There is no right order. Choose the part of the tree you are curious about, and notice how the parts belong together.
The Core
Because in every life there is something that returns. The core is what a person recognises, in their own words, as running through their life. Not a label, but a living understanding that can grow as life is lived and understood anew.
Why roots?The Roots
Because no one begins from nothing. The roots are the conditions a person grew up in: family, place, culture and what they carried with them. Not single events, but the soil a life began in.
Why a trunk?The Trunk
Because a life has to be carried. The trunk is the way a person has come to stand in life. Not who they are, but how they have learned to carry it.
Why rings?The Rings
Because some things leave a mark. The rings show that an experience left a lasting trace. They don’t explain what the mark became. They only show that it is there, and that it belongs.
Why branches?The Branches
Because life takes directions. The branches are the choices, paths and dreams, the new beginnings and the directions no one saw coming. Not chapters or fixed stages of life, but movement.
Why leaves?The Leaves
The leaves are a part of the Life Tree we deliberately keep open. We will only give them a meaning once we have listened our way to it. A tree meant to hold a human life should have room for what has not been said yet.
Still unfolding
Why flowers?The Flowers
The flowers are still open too. We are in no hurry to explain them. Some things in a life need to unfold at their own pace.
Still unfolding
Why fruit?The Fruit
Because something should live on. The fruit is what life has taught a person, and what they themselves wish to live on in others.
Why seeds?The Seeds
The seeds are the last of the tree’s open parts. We don’t decide in advance what they hold. What has not sprouted yet deserves patience.
Still unfolding
The Life Tree does not grow in order to be finished. It grows because life is lived.
We resemble a tree, inside as well as out.
Because a life does not grow in a straight line.
A tree grows in rings and directions, above ground and below. A life is the same: it moves back and forth, and memories often arrive through association rather than in order.
My tree has many rings. It has marks from blows. Branches that have broken.
I do not get back up because my life never cracked. I get back up because my trunk has grown stronger.
Michelle’s own words. Read the whole text
Not chapters. Connections.
The family, the place and the time we came from.
What we ourselves recognise as running through our life.
The ones we loved, and the ones who loved us.
What we have lived through, large and small.
What stayed with us afterwards.
What made life easier to live.
What life has taught us along the way.
What we are still dreaming of.
What we would like to leave with others.
In no particular order. A story can belong in several places at once, and one memory can open the door to another.
Hand-painted, layer by layer.
The original Life Tree is painted in watercolour, first as a pencil sketch and then in colour. It is the fixed symbol of EchobelleGarden.
There are two Life Trees: the iconic tree, which appears unchanged on every Life Portrait, and the personal tree, which grows from a person’s own stories.
The Life Tree and the botanical watercolours are drawn and painted by Tomas Björnsson.