Regrowth

I had to make a choice today while I was out hiking alone, take a wide, dusty trail who was well beaten down with millions of human tracks and horse shoe prints or follow a tiny path I spotted like a keyhole on the door to the forest.
Of course I chose the keyhole. It was small, it could only fit a single human. The forest was so thick there was no way to tell what it looked like or where it was going. Soon enough I learned that this path was winding straight up a mountain side. The earth was damp and the grasses surrounding it were brand new- high and green like it had just woken up from a nap, full of life and ready to go.

It twisted through trees that had been burned and left charred by wild fires but it was alive with sounds and rustlings of small animals going about their days. The trail got drier the higher I got until it was loose dirt and gravel and the last bit was pretty much a hands and knees situation. At last I found myself on a mountain side looking over the city of Los Angeles.

I found a spot to hide off the trail that overlooked the city below and I read, wrote, and wondered.
I thought of the native Americans who lived in these hills for thousands of years and wondered if they knew just how beautiful this place was. I thought about the people who have no regard for things historical and just feel a need to make new apartment buildings and make sure every corner has an Applebee’s and a 24 hour fitness. I thought about the people who can’t see past their own mirrors and felt sad for them. I wondered about the fate of humanity. The planet will be fine because nature always takes what’s given and goes around it. It doesn’t give a shit about the obstacles, it will grow right through a sidewalk or building.
Trees get burned at the will of the wildfires just like humans get burned by the task of everyday living, but unlike the trees we have a choice, as long as we have the will, to regrow ourselves to be even stronger than we ever were before.