Trees

This week, the Hovaters made our way to Fresno to visit Kelly’s family. Their home is just over an hour away from one of our world’s treasures—the groves of giant sequoia trees nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

These trees can stretch a few hundred feet in the air, and by volume are the largest trees on earth. Some of them have been alive since before the fall of the Roman Empire.

It’s hard to conceive of a thing like that, a being who has seen that many summers and winters.

When I go to the trees, I’m not really sure what to do with myself. I think if I was just by myself, I’d perch myself in front of one on a rock with a mug of coffee, and just soak in the forest. But that’s not my stage of life; I mostly meandered around watching my kids take in the wonder of it all at a less than meditative pace.

And that’s not a bad thing. It was a day for play, for scampering around at the feet of these majestic creatures—and remembering we are creatures ourselves.

(And I still got to catch a few moments to reflect on a rock.)