I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do. They go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!

Muir uses the tree as a corrective to human restlessness and complaint. A tree appears “content” because it accepts its place and conditions, yet it is not static: it sways, reaches, and “wanders” with wind and growth. By reminding us that even rooted beings are carried at immense speed through space with the Earth’s motion, Muir collapses the distinction between stillness and travel. The passage invites humility and wonder: our lives, like a tree’s, are simultaneously grounded in a particular spot and part of vast, ongoing cosmic movement. Contentment here is not passivity but attunement to nature’s rhythms.