So I live this magical cool life that I do not take for granted one iota. Just about 2 weeks ago, my husband and I decided we needed a vacation, and after some deliberating, we decided on Redwood National and State Parks.
During Covid, we really wanted to go some place where there wasn't going to be a lot of people, and we love being out in nature. We decided with all of the hiking required for the Redwoods, that it might be quieter and less people-y. We were correct for the most part. We found a lovely old, but updated, motel right in the middle of the Redwoods. It had a 1/2 mile trail from the motel to a beach called Hidden Beach. No one went there, and we had it private for most of the time. It was lovely. But the real show stopper was the Redwood Trees.
These magnificent creations do not have enough words to describe them. As humans we are always told we are just tiny specs in this great big ol' world. I don't think there is another way to feel so tiny on this planet as you do when you are standing among these gentle giants. People can drive cars through them, walk through them, get married in them find shelter in them, and learn some huge lessons from them. I have been among them before at Muir Woods Park near San Francisco, but the National and State parks really get you in the feels with these big trees.
We hiked for miles along beautiful trail that lead us over water crossings from little creeks to bigger rivers. We couldn't' even make it to a couple of trails cause of the car we were driving. But the trails we did make it to were magical. We knew part of Star Wars was filmed in the Redwoods, but I'm telling you, the Hobbit could have been filmed there too. These forests were gorgeous and moving.
As we walked through the groves of giant trees, I saw burned out trunks, but when I look up higher I saw that this giant tree with a burnet out log was miraculously alive and thriving. Then I saw other redwoods that were injured at the base of the tree and then healed itself by creating another trunk another part of the tree..and many times, it grew multiple parts that all formed one big huge giant tree at the bottom, but had separate tree tops. Sometimes these trees. formed circles that they called Fairy Circles or Cathedrals. Either way, standing in the middle of them, makes you feel so tiny..but also so loved and special. There is something so nurturing about these gentle giants.
As I looked at these trees and stood among them, it dawned on me that these trees were a lot of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). A human goes through a trauma and we are hurt. We do not get killed..we survived. But in order to survive, pieces (our alters or head mates) of us splitter off and hold memories and grow on their own, while the main part of us (the host) continues to grow and eventually heal when we are ready. The Redwood can be burned and charred, but it continues to grow strait and true..and sometimes it splits and grows a beautiful cathedral that people love coming to and celebrating life with. Sometimes that is what DID is like for me. I have been traumatized and split into multiple personalities, but we all grow and thrive. Each one of my personalities is a beautiful piece of me and I would not be me without them. Unlike the beautiful Redwood tree, the personalities (head mates/alters) that I have will eventually be integrated and I will be back to one personality, but in the mean time, taking lessons from the giant Coastal Redwood this weekend has healed my soul.
