A lyrical storyteller, Vandana Shiva begins from the roots of the Chipko movement in India, under the canopy of the Himalayan forests while listening to the teachings of the forest. Her evolution of ideas, first based in the history of science and then in the creation of an Earth University on her own Navdanya's farm, suggests a mind's journey to see nature as live, diverse, and as a source for harmony and self-perfection. [Reprinted by permission of the author from "Yes!" (2013, Winter): 47-50. The last section of this essay is adapted from "Forest and Freedom," written by Shiva and published in the May/June 2011 edition of "Resurgence" magazine.