Once, When I Was Tree
About
When I was a little girl, I didn’t care much for the company of other children, preferring that of plants, hills, rocks, and bugs. I grew up in New Caledonia, where some plants react when caressed and others eat flesh—so of course, I learned early that plants are sentient, and that they have much to say if we know how to listen.
Then I became a scientist, and forgot all about it.
Once, When I Was Tree: A Memoir of Interspecies Communication, Nomadic Living, and Mystical Journeys is a collection of true stories gathered across landscapes and seasons of my life, woven through a slow remembering of how to listen again—to forests, animals, and those beyond the veil.
This book invites readers to question the invisible assumptions that separate “human” from “nature,” mind from world, and ordinary reality from a more intimate, responsive one.
From an unlikely kinship with mosquitoes to the fierce wisdom of Ayahuasca, nothing here is accidental. Not even you.
For readers of Braiding Sweetgrass, Desert Solitaire, How to Change Your Mind, The Hidden Life of Trees, and The Spell of the Sensuous—those drawn to spiritual memoir, plant medicine, nature mysticism, animism, and eco-spirituality
Praise for this book
This book will change your connection and relationship to EVERYTHING in your life. It has opened my awareness to how I relate to every being- especially the trees. This is a book I will come back to over and over for the wonderful journey of storytelling.
100000/10 stars, trees, rivers and soil for this AMAZING book!
Maya effortlessly captures the intrinsic connection we have with nature in this beautiful, hilarious and poignant memoir.
By giving us access to her experiences, it helps us remember our own times where it was just us and our Mother Earth — communing in magic.
Mayas stories are everything: childlike curiosity, naive braveness, deep human emotions, immaculate wisdom and anything in between.
I feel like a better person after having read this and being granted access to a life such as Mayas. I read the last chapter in public on a subway line in Toronto and cried my eyes out from her words. I will cherish this book forever.
Go do yourself a favor and gift yourself some quiet moments with Once, When I Was Tree. Your soul will thank you.
Mine does. Thank you Maya Wyld for your rugged, wild, sweet little life that you’ve shared with us.
Maya's latest book is a portal. Each page beckons you into a new world—one where logic takes a back seat and the impossible becomes playground, mirror, teacher. It’s an emotional kaleidoscope: tender, fierce, gutting, hilarious, expansive. One moment you’ll be laughing out loud, the next questioning everything you thought you knew.
This is storytelling that transmutes.
If you’ve been craving an adventure that stirs your soul, surprises your mind, and sneaks into your dreams… trust me, you’ve found it.