There is a mysterious power about the number three. For some deep reason it is associated – in the human consciousness – with ‘completeness’.

Designers and gardeners will advise that you need an odd number of ‘arranged things’ to look good. The number one is exempt from this, as it, itself, is associated with unity – and not multiplicity, where the design considerations apply, therefore three is the first true odd number in a design sense.

In ancient spiritual thought, this is partly explained by ‘how things happen’. There is an initial impetus ‘to do’. This has to act on something, giving two entities. The result is a new state made by the combining nature of the two and taking the ‘whole’ onwards.

My photo, above, is hopefully a good example of such threeness. Taken in a local park, there are actually four ascending trunks from three trees: one of them has a double trunk.

The impact of the shot is the visual three-ness of the large beautiful trees that mark the exit of the park and the return to the tarmac beyond.

Like guardians, they wish us well – and urge us to return, soon; to refresh ourselves with their oxygen and symmetry.

©️Stephen Tanham, 2025