I saw new trees sprouting out of old growth stumps that had been logged, clearly showing me how this next generation grows on the shoulders of giants (evidenced in the photo below).

Of course, this prompted me to find a comfortable spot under a stately tree, where I wrote these few nature-inspired lines:

I am your understudy, dear beloved Douglas Fir.
You help me understand the interconnected ecology of a forest.
I am also your understory, the life that teems beneath your towers.
Without you, we would be unprotected.

I go into the forest to lose my mind…or maybe to cleanse it.
To feel the grandeur and intimacy of being with an elder of the backwoods.
Why is it that “old growth” is such a lovable phrase when it comes to trees?
Yet, when we apply it to humans, it sounds like an oxymoron.