Sometimes even the smallest adventures can produce the best life lessons.
I learned this firsthand when my husband, Val, and I recently took our little family of three on a weekend trip to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The adjacent parks are known for their groves of Giant Sequoia trees, in particular, the superlative General Sherman tree and the General Grant tree. We spent our first two days in the parks wandering among the sequoias, marvelling at these truly majestic titans of the forest. A lot of things in nature are dubbed “majestic” and compared to cathedrals or other places of reverence, and it’s often overdone and hyperbolic in my opinion, but in this case, those poetic descriptors are perfectly accurate.
I can’t even properly describe the awe I felt among the sequoias. Standing at the base of the world’s largest trees - these massive plants that can live for 2,000 years or more, grow to heights of 300 feet, and trunks 26 feet in diameter - is something I think everyone needs to experience. Sequoias are so big and often gnarled by age and charred fire-scars, and yet they still exude a strange and alluring elegance. Once you’ve walked among these enchanting giants, you’ll never look at...
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