I Thought I Had Discovered Her

I thought I had discovered "Mother Tree." Then my brother found an old journal hidden among her rocks, and I learned something wonderful. Other people had recognized her long before I arrived.

I first spotted Mother Tree from one of my favorite trails in the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. The trail looks west across rolling grasslands and forests toward the Pacific Ocean, and I've hiked it many times over the years.

One day, I noticed an enormous, beautifully shaped oak down the hillside. There seemed to be a little path leading toward her, so I decided to explore.

When I reached the bottom, I discovered that her enormous trunk and roots were intertwined with massive rocks. I don't know whether the tree grew around the rocks or the rocks somehow became part of the tree, but after all these years they seem to belong to each other.

There are wonderful places to sit among those rocks. One day, as I sat there meditating and looking out over the forest, I began noticing what was growing around the great tree.

All along the edges of her enormous skirt were little trees and bushes. They looked like babies gathered around their mother.

Of course she was Mother Tree.

I've called her that ever since.

Years later, I took my brother Ricky to visit. Ricky is considerably more inquisitive than I am and started exploring among the rocks. Hidden there, he discovered an old geocache box, an ammunition box filled with little treasures, a pen and a journal where visitors had recorded their discoveries.

We opened the journal.

And there was her name. Mother Tree.

I remember that wonderful surge of recognition. Of course, other people had seen it, too. Of course, she was Mother Tree.

I thought I had discovered Mother Tree. It turned out I was simply the latest person to recognize her.

I love that.

Maybe appreciation is often like that. We don't create the beauty or goodness we discover.

We simply become awake enough to recognize what was already there.