Let the Mountains Be Our Teachers

“In every walk with nature, one receives far more than [one] seeks.” – John Muir

I am absolutely certain that you can learn every important life lesson there is to learn just by spending a few hours outside each day. And not just outside in your backyard. I’m talking outside in the mountains, in the forests, in the canyons, in the deserts, as far from civilization as you can get, and sometimes you don’t even have to go that far to find yourself in these places. Thirty minutes north of SF, across the Golden Gate, you’ll find yourself among the majestic redwood forests of northern California. My good friend Spencer and I spent our last Saturday in this heaven we call California at Muir Woods, named after John Muir, a naturalist that helped establish the National Park system.

We spent a good three to four hours here hiking around. The lower boardwalk area where you see most these giant redwoods can get pretty crowded, especially on the weekend. But there are several hiking trails that branch off from the main path that see considerably less traffic. These I would recommend, because these are where you get to really experience nature and the peace it brings. You can hear yourself think, and when there is no noise to crowd out your thoughts, you begin to discover the amazing lessons nature can teach you.

I have Spencer to thank for this post; he kept a list of what we were learning and was actively searching for additional insights. In those few hours, the mountains and the redwoods taught us six lessons:  

1. Pain and trials bring opportunity for growth. When one of those magnificent redwoods crashes down, it causes a lot of destruction to the surrounding area; however, that destruction brings the opportunity for new life and growth. It allows sunlight to reach the plants on the forest floor and the remains of the redwood provide nutrients for the new plants and shelter for animals. The forest grows in a new way.
2. Trials make you stronger. We saw several trees with scorch marks on them, indicating that at some point in the near past a fire must have run through the forest. As the redwoods heal from the burns, their plant material and bark becomes thicker around the burn marks, making them even stronger than they were before.
3. Strong, close families enable all members to better reach their potential. Redwoods are the tallest trees in the world. We noticed that the redwoods grow together in clumps. You rarely see a redwood growing by itself, and if it is, there will soon be others around it (and by soon, I mean years and years later, but when you live to be 2,200 years old, that’s soon). The root system of a redwood is very shallow in proportion to its height, yet it can reach such heights because the root systems of the surrounding trees intertwine and weave together while spreading outward. They help each other reach the heights they achieve.
4. Don’t quit at 90 percent. Spencer and I hiked to the top of this trail and enjoyed a beautiful view of the valley and the distant ocean. On our way back down, right near the top, several people were making their way up and most of them asked us how much farther the top was. They seemed ready to give up and turn back and miss the incredible reward they had waiting for them at the top.
5. First you must have faith that the path will get you there, but then you must actually walk the path to get there. We trusted that the trail we were taking would bring us to the destination we desired, but what good would that have done us if we didn’t actually walk forward on the trail? We would have gone nowhere. It was acting on our faith that enabled us to find what we were looking for.
6. Sometimes perceived setbacks are actually the way forward. There were many points on our hike where the trail began slopping downward, even though we knew that we needed to go up. But that didn’t mean that we stopped at the first downward turn and decided that the trail must not be the right one because it wasn’t going up like we knew it needed to. Even though we were going down instead of up, we were still progressing forward to our destination.

Our view from the top. Definitely worth it.