Eternal Musings

Today was an indescribable day, but I will try anyway. It started early in the morning when I had to crawl out of my relatively warm sleeping bag into the cold morning air. I’m guessing it was low 40’s now that the sun was coming up. After morning routines and packing up my car, I decided to go take a look at this beach on the other side of the lagoon. I’d been listening to the pounding waves for the last two days and had yet to see it. The day before, I almost made it over the dune, but I was stopped by fencing that closed off the area for nesting snowy plovers, and then I was completely drawn back to the lagoon because there in a cove I had not quite paddled to was a pack of harbor seals sunning themselves on the beach.  The Pacific Ocean could wait another day. And it did.

Today, I went over to the day use area of the Big Lagoon County Park of Humboldt County. Find that one on the map. I only found it because it was on the Redwood National Park map. It’s amazing how big everything is out here. On top of the dune I could see breakers coming in for miles. They seemed powerful enough but I had no idea how powerful until I got down eye level with them. These breakers had to be 5-8 feet tall. They were huge, and they thundered as they came crashing down on the shore. It was breathtaking and actually a bit frightening. There is no way in the world I would even attempt to kayak in that!

I hung around the beach for a while because the power of the thundering waves mesmerized me. It was tempting to stay another day here. The lagoon was actually calm today and it was warming up nicely. Today would have been the good day to paddle. Yesterday a strong wind out of the northwest kicked up. It made for a strenuous paddle which is why I never got as far as the seals by boat. I needed a break and was walking a bit.  Ah but that was yesterday.

Today, after letting my heart pound with the waves for awhile, I loaded myself back in my car and headed south again on Hwy 101 to the Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt Redwood State Park. This was where I was originally going to camp, but lately I’m mixing it up a bit and not sticking with the plan. This way I get to discover and delight in the unexpected.

I had already been through the northern areas of the Redwood National Park. I figured this would be more of the same. Well, if adding another 100’ of tree is the same, ok, it was more of the same. Not! It was utterly amazing, the size of these trees. My neck is stiff, but I’m still not tired of looking up to see the tops of these magnificent coastal redwoods. I hiked along the Founder’s Grove Nature trail and was just astonished and awed by these trees.  They’re huge, and in a way they are eternal.

One tree in particular touched me deeply. It was the Dyersville Giant - 17 feet in diameter, 370 feet tall (that’s like a 30 story building and taller than Niagara Falls). This tree came down in 1991 after heavy rains. Another tree in the forest was blown over, knocking into another tree, which then leaned into this giant and sent it over a week later. It was kind of like dominos in slow motion. No one was around when it fell, but someone a mile away heard the crash. There’s your answer to the proverbial question of if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it make a sound? The answer is Yes!  A mile away it sounded like a train wreck. 

The burl is only at the 100' mark of the Dyersville giant. 

Anyway, this tree is guessed to be around 1600 years old. Honestly, I didn’t mess up the number as I’m known to do. It’s 16 hundred or one thousand six hundred years old! It will take at least 400 years more before it completely disintegrates into the forest floor. It is not uncommon for these trees to live 2200 years. I was totally awed, and actually a bit saddened by this tree’s early death. Even laying there on the forest floor it was a thing of beauty, and its size was incredible.

Surrounded by these huge, ancient trees is indeed magical and mystical. Surprisingly I didn’t feel small in their midst.  The sheer size should make me feel tiny. The length of time that went into creating these forests should make me feel like nothing in the spectrum of time, but it doesn’t. Instead, I feel lucky and thankful to be a part of something so much greater than myself. I did nothing to create it. In fact, the One who created these great trees and magnificent shorelines created human beings as well; created me.  And the Creator called it all good. K’ tov!  Regardless of size, shape, purpose or function, we’re all good; we’re all beloved by the One who created us. God takes as much delight in me as God does this tree that grew so strong and beautiful for 1600 years.

It’s an awesome thing to be part of something that began long before me and will continue long after I’m gone. I guess in a way, it reminds me that I’m already part of eternity. As I think of human relationships with all their joys and struggles, they tend to keep us focused in the more immediate section of eternity. We are wrapped up in our own dreams and trials for the day. It’s easy to think this is all there is. Even if we look a few years or a couple of decades down the road, this is it; this is our life, so we better make something of it.

As I think about that in terms of eternity I almost want to think it doesn’t matter. What I do, who I am, what I accomplish or even when I fail terribly, doesn’t matter in the really grand scheme of things. Well, that definitely take some pressure off (lol), but at the same time it matters greatly.  I’ve been reading about Bowen Family Systems theory which connects generations to generations. It sees individual human behavior in relationship to family systems and patterns that have been going on for hundreds of years. Without going into great detail, what it says is we’re connected and linked to people who have lived and died long before us. We’re also connected and linked to people in our families who are yet to be born and who we may never meet.  How we behave and decided and relate and live today is all connected up in patterns that have been passed on to us and we may or may not pass on to the future. What we do and who we are matters. We are all part of the eternal flow of life.

With all that said. I am awed. I am amazed. I am grateful to be part of something so big and so eternal. 

Sweet dreams, all.

This was actually written 5/18/12. Due to no internet access, its a couple of days out of sync.