The Tree

It was sometime in June while I was traveling to San Francisco. I was with my family on a vacation to see all the marvels the city had to offer. We saw the Golden Gate bridge, ate on Fisherman's wharf, toured an aquarium, walked around Chinatown, and ended up on a tour bus sightseeing the city that would eventually lead to the Muir Woods. If you are not familiar with Muir Woods, they are very similar to the Redwood Forest. These woods stretch in the mountains northeast of San Francisco, about an hour and a half away. Winding up the road to the woods you can see the land break off into the ocean. As you move higher and higher into the mountain the trees begin to become larger and larger. Eventually we are hiking into a crevice between two mountains. These magnificent trees surround you. They are so tall you cannot hear the wind passing by. It is one of the most peaceful places I have ever been. The trails are man made from constant visitation constantly intertwining itself between these giant trees. As I gazed upon my surroundings I felt the presence of life that has been here since the age of time began. The forest floor contained little vegetation because of the spider wed of trees branches above. The trunks of these trees stretched as wide as 4 men side to side. The branches did not begin to break off until these trees were 50 or 60 feet above ground. Looking straight ahead you could only see the legs of these plants, like columns supporting a dome, as if this was its own world. It was as though these trees will be here until the end of time. 

Venturing further into the forest we began to hike the side of one of the mountains. As we elevated ourselves, we began to come in line with the branches of the trees. As I was looking at the branches I noticed one particular branch. This branch at one time had crossed over the path we were hiking; obviously obstructing the path of the onlookers it was cut down. But just above the stub of this branch, there was another branch. Growing straight up. This puzzled me, and I captured it in the picture above. I have thought about it from time to time. Now tree branches grow for one reason, in two directions. They grow vertically and horizontally allowing them to capture more sunlight. In theory, if you cut a branch growing horizontally, it would grow back in the same direction to recapture the sunlight it had lost. But this one did not. Did the tree learn from that event? It led me to question other things I had been facing in life. 

This tree had been growing for some time, the severed branch was at least six inches in diameter. Here this tree was living life, photosynthesis was happening, and things couldn't be better. Then one day the limb was hacked off and everything changed. Something bad had happened. The tree didn't get what it wanted. This is how life in all aspects acts and I see this same thing in my own life.

One day everything is going well and something happens that you didn't want to happen. Some people get pissed off, others cry "why me?" And still others blindly try again. This is where I learned from that tree. That tree could have grown in the same direction and the same thing would have happened. Instead, the tree took a new route. Whether the tree lost the branch due to man's interference or an act of God, this same mentality can be applied to our own lives.

When something doesn't go right in your life due to factors you cannot control, don't think that the world, or whatever caused the intervention, is out to get you. Maybe that action was there to tell you something. Instead, learn from it and plan accordingly. Find your new direction and keep pursuing that dream that you had in the first place. The tree certainly did, there are leaves sprouting from the new branch. Everything happens for a reason, and the people that can adjust themselves to continue their pursuit of whatever it may be will eventually get there. The road to success is not a straight line but road full of ups and downs, just like the trails in Muir Woods. I guess those ancient trees had learned something in all the years of their lives.