Just as one calls into the forest, so it echoes back
Just as one calls into the forest, so it echoes back [Proverb, Croatian/Lithuanian/German].
A traditional proverb across many Eastern European and Baltic countries, it counsels the listener to speak and act how they would like to be treated themselves, for as you speak to others, so shall be spoken to you.
In Eastern Europe the forest has long been a metaphor for both the individual and the nation, trees emerging from the earth, stretching skywards towards the light and roots tangling, and embracing the soil. To both ground your moral fibre in a strong foundation and make the growth of your character sprout towards a higher urge and flourish in kindness and benevolence, there must be empathy; fully becoming, knowing, understanding the other.
Nowhere is better to learn moral truths and a social code than Fairytales which have long recounted children, being transformed into animals, stones or trees as punishment for unrepentant behaviour.
“May you turn into a willow,
May you shiver day and night,
May the rain cleanse your mouth,
May the wind comb your hair!”
- Egle upon turning her treacherous daughter Drebulė into a Quaking Aspen tree [Lithuanian Fairytale - Eglė the Queen of Serpents]