The last time I drove through the Redwoods I was going to Napa with my mom and brother. It was hot and I mostly slept in the backseat, randomly opening my eyes here and there as massive Redwood trees zoomed by. That was before I moved to Bermuda in 2000.
I’m in the Redwood National Park area now, north of the famous 31-mile Avenue of the Giants. That’s in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. It’s a beautiful part of the world. The sea mist and fog, along with the cooler temperatures, is the environment these majestic trees love. A mystical and magical place. Here is some info about Redwoods.
There are Redwoods all around here, maybe not the biggest or oldest ones.
It was on the way to and from Klammath that I got to really step into their presence. Such a scenic drive, Wade offered to stop anywhere I had wanted to. The sunlight filtering through the leaves, the beautiful trees…I wanted to stop everywhere; I was just speechless. So we kept driving…until we got there. Here.
This is the spot we stopped at; not that I could see, from the road. It was a call, a whisper.
Wade was going to wait at the car, giving me time and space to follow some sense of being, barefoot down the beginning of a trail. I’m not sure what I felt. What I felt was thick in the air. There was this presence, welcoming. Each time my foot touched the cold damp earth, I felt enlivened. Alone, and not alone, I had entered a different realm, a fairy realm where the Sasquatch also dwell, if that makes sense. I turned around, headed to the road to invite Wade into this space with me.
We sat on the bench together and each enjoyed our own encounter. The presence I felt became even more palpable. I was sure if I had eyes in the back of my head, I’d see these beings.
The spot I found turned out to be the Soroptimist Memorial Grove.
According to their website, soroptimist means “best for women” and “soroptimists are women at their best, working to help other women to be their best.”
“Randomly” stopping at this grove was a powerful message to me. What is best for me, for me as a woman, navigating a new relationship and what is the best for my and our feminine energies as we embark on this journey together?
It’s interesting that when I searched online for information (as I hadn’t heard of the Soroptimists) the background on the grove came up easily and now that I’m writing about it, I can’t locate that same info. This is an example of getting the information when you need it and trust that it is enough. The salient point of this adventure is what I have shared, the history perhaps less relevant, especially as we are moving beyond the time of history as we create, birth, and anchor a new world.
