Friday, September 20, 2019

The Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia in Yosemite National Park


There is a cabin located at the top of the climb, a thousand feet from the tourists below.  The log house is rectangle in shape, a single room,  warmed by chimneys at each end.  A table of wooden planks is brightened by a simple ceramic pitcher filled with wildflowers.  A rocking chair dominates one end, a counter-balance to the kitchen – one the emotional, the other spiritual,  center of the home.  The rafters  hold dried herbs and the abundance of a good harvest.  Quilts cover the beds, a family history of memories retained in the materials used – a child’s gown, an old apron, the gifts of a wedding chest. Inside, the world is contained.  All is organized, simple and purposeful.  It is all unto itself, complete.  Yet, a step outside reveals the youth of man and his safety.  The trees dwarf all else.  The pine cones that collect on the ground demonstrate the fertility of giants, a seed of impressive size.   These women of the forest bear their young in flames.  Light filters through leaves as if in a cathedral of towering divinity. Time is different here.  These guardians stood when Julius Caesar was a babe and bear witness to all our folly.  All my problems are small and fleeting in this place.

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