One summer in college, I worked at a camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains on the California coast. Redwoods surrounded the small camp and we would often take campers for hikes on the trails, weaving through the giant trees. When people say the history of the West doesn’t compare with the East Coast or Europe, I wonder if they’ve walked among the redwoods. These trees have seen so much. They were thriving during the Spanish Missions, the Gold Rush, Westward Expansion. They were saplings during the height of the Roman Empire. They have seen populations grow. They’ve been cut down for use and protected in National Parks. Walking through the musty-smelling forest, you can feel the history of the trees. Walking through them reminds me to shift my thinking about our planet. We have shaped so much of it, through culture and society, yet these trees remain rooted in history, growing yet unchanging. How much of history can we learn from nature; from the stillness and quiet?
Linked with Lisa-Jo Baker‘s Five Minute Friday.
Annie Rim 