Big Trees

Easily the biggest trees I have ever seen are the Sierra Sequoias.

And they come with some big surprises…
Growing as solitary giants amid pine trees ~ which are in and of themselves by no means small trees ~ they seem to come up as if ‘out of nowhere’. Kind of like now you see it, now you don’t, as you move through the forest… It is not like they are small trees either; although only when you walk up does its size truly become apparent.
Another surprise is that their bark is so soft to the touch; almost silk-like.
And then there is their humongous height; the tallest stretching truly from earth into the heavens…

Hard to make a picture of, yet as it turns out, easy to experience…

Ancient, yet very ‘in the moment’. A quiet strength, yet soft to the touch. So very still and seemingly unmoving, yet full of life. Greatness personified.

Meeting one ~ or even more ~ of those ancient giants is a truly humbling experience. Not just are we as people dwarfed by these Sequoias, but their simple, non-assuming strength seems to be reassuring more than protective.
Like emanating a message reminding us of the potential of our own ‘reality selves’.

Therefore they also bring up a couple of questions. Questions about what we are spending our time and energy on; questions about our priorities. About our deepest inner wishes and desires, and about what we are doing on a day to day basis to make those wishes and desires come true in our lives…

Yet most of all they bring a realization that being the best individual we can be at that very moment, is all we need to strive for. And that this state of being comes with being grounded while at the same time reaching up so high that we ~ as we are standing on the forest floor ~ cannot see its top. In other words, we can be grounded as well as reaching up into the highest frequencies of our (spiritual) energy at the same time.

They are quite a contrast to our busy day-to-day lives that are ruled by our often over-scheduled calendars, with lots of things that we need to do. Actions that need to be taken…

For thousands of years these gentle giants are showing us by example that ‘being’ might be more important than ‘doing’. That the state of being the best we can be, is enough; not only to survive, but to thrive!