Nothing More Noble Than Trees
Redwoods
If you’ve ever walked in a redwood forest, you know firsthand the feeling of awe. The redwood reaches high overhead, sometimes hundreds of feet tall, their bases as wide as a car, sometimes wide enough for cars to drive through. There is no place more peaceful than a forest, no place that can take you so quickly out of the day-to-day nonsense and into the present moment.
Bristlecone Pine
Travel to the Sierra mountains, climb a granite cliff in Yosemite, and stand beside the oldest trees in the world . . . the Bristlecone pine. These amazing trees can live up to 5,000 years! When they die and we cut them open, their rings reveal more than years. They also tell the story of earth’s climate in their lifetime, when there was abundant rain, and when they experienced drought, how high or low carbon dioxide levels were.
During the lifespans of trees, they grace us with their beauty, they shade us on hot days, and they provide us with necessary oxygen, they consume carbon dioxide, and they throw much needed water into our atmosphere. As we walk among these towering giants, they stand sentinel as we unwind and let go of city stress and daily angst.
If you don’t spend a lot of time among the kings of the forest, you are missing out on a wonderful opportunity to de-stress.
Mushrooms growing out of fallen tree
But trees don’t just give while they are alive, they continue even through death. As I type this I enjoy a crackling fire, and the cabin I sit in is made of wood. Wood goes into fences and decks, paper products, and more.
In the forest when a tree falls, it may die, but life takes hold in it’s rotting trunk. Insects burrow in, seedlings sprout, and mosses, lichens, and fungi continue to grow on it. There seems to be nothing in the forest that is truly dead. Recycling can be witnessed firsthand.
While people pour energy into various belief systems and imaginary gods, I wonder at how the tree goes unrevered. Trees provide so much to the environment, to our daily living, to our very survival and sanity.
There is nothing more noble, more sacred, than trees.
Tags: forests, relaxation, sacred, trees
May 18th, 2010 at 12:19 am
Could there be more to trees than what we see with our eyes?
July 25th, 2010 at 7:28 pm
[...] During the lifespans of trees, they grace us with their beauty, they shade us on hot days, and they provide us with necessary oxygen, they consume carbon dioxide, and they throw much needed water into our atmosphere. As we walk among these towering giants, they stand sentinel as we unwind and let go of city stress and daily angst. ~Nothing More Noble Than Trees [...]