I just returned from a week in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National park. It was intended to be a final hurrah to summer and to allow me to recharge before I return to school on August 26th. Also, I needed to get out and get away and busy my mind with something I actually control rather than baking at home in my own juices stewing over struggles that I ultimately don't control. Trips like this allow me to disconnect from the rest of the worldliness of the modern world and reconnect with things that are real and down to earth. Choosing Sequoia National Park proved to be a good thing, and the trees taught me many things.
Sequoia trees show that it's ok to enlarge and improve yourself. The strength and size of the sequoia does nothing to inhibit the growth of neighboring trees or interfere with things around them. In fact, they are not necessarily the tallest tree in the forest. Sometimes, we hold ourselves back because people around us get upset that we get smarter, healthier, richer, or any number of possible improvement avenues than they are. They want to drag us down. You know what drags down a sequoia? Wind. Eventually, the wind breaks off the top of the tree, and it stops growing taller. They continue, for as long as 2200 years, grow wider and enlarge in width and breadth until they finally topple because they have reached the measure of their creation. Grow big! Go big! Become everything you can be.
Sequoia national park reiterated the importance of commitment. On the middle day of our journey, we tackled a huge escarpment at the end of the Lodgepole Camping Area. I cannot be exactly sure, but we climbed from the valley floor 1000 meters in a distance of 1000 horizontal meters to the top of the escarpment. It took hours, but I realized that by the time I realized I might have overreached, it was easier to press forward to the top than to go back down the way we came. A local at the trail on top was impressed; he was not sure that it could be done. I don't know that I'd do it again, but I feel a sense of accomplishment. When you look at the trees in the park, you will see that some of them grow in precipitous locations buttressed by large environmental resistance. That same escarpment we climbed is constantly buffeted by wind; it is subject to rockslides, landslides, and avalanche (snowpack permitting). Some of the trees are over 30 meters in height, but they are there, and they know that they either see it through or die.
Giant sequoia trees are designed on purpose to resist the greatest dangers in the forest- drought and fire. They accomplish this by growing a layer of bark anywhere from 30cm to 90cm thick. The chemicals in this outer skin are difficult to ignite or penetrate, meaning that the trees lose hardly anything through transpiration and that they can withstand large and frequent fires. Like those trees, we would do well to grow a thick skin. Things will challenge our position, our existence, and our strength, but the thicker and less reactive our skin the more likely we will be to rise above the ashes of adversity and continue to stand tall and proud and pass on the best of us to our posterity.
Besides their size, Sequoia trees provide much for us to admire and emulate. I am certain there are more lessons we can learn from theses trees. They show us that it hurts only us when we hold ourselves back, and they tell us that it's ok to grow as much as you can. They show us a tenacity and commitment unparalleled in our own world as they tackle the threats created by man as well as nature to their survival and enlargement. Finally, they show us how we can overcome adversity, that what doesn't kill us can make us stronger and worthy of emulation. I highly suggest that every person who can do so visit this amazing forest and feel the strength of the trees. Clearly, as CS Lewis wrote, some of these trees are on our side.
The images in this post are proprietary.
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