Forest Beckons

My husband and I took a road trip to the Redwood National Park up north. Those big trees were calling me for a long time, especially since I read the epic novel by Richard Powers, The Overstory. The journey was most certainly nourishing. We went from a forest where pine trees and fir trees grow to be hundreds of years old to a forest where those redwoods grow thousands of years. Then i spent a few days in Los Angeles the following week and came back to my forest, and I felt acutely how much I needed to be back in the woods.

This is what came out of me as I walked the trail I’m so familiar in my back yard.

Entering the forest,

I am interrupting the afternoon chatters of the winged ones.

I can only recognize rambunctious Steller’s Jays.

There are others that are familiar, but I don’t know who they are

Are they alarming each other of this two-legged arrival?

I am a frequent guest to this woods.

They must know me by now.

Forest beckons.

I couldn’t wait to get here.

After driving around on 5-lane freeways for 4 days

I had to come home

Humans had to be told

It was good to be in the nature

There are scientific data available to prove it

How far have we come?

To be reminded by science that we should be connecting with nature…

The trees are singing

Competing with the birds

Or may be harmonizing

These tall fir trees…

They don’t even come close

to those giant Redwood trees that we visited a couple of weeks ago

They are grand babies

Those giants

Who have been around for centuries

I can’t imagine what they have seen all these years

They’ve been standing there

Still

Against the wind, rain, snow and blazing sun

I bow to you