Sequoias-Gods of the Forest

Ancient beings like Gods loomed over me, around me muffled talking as if out of respect for the gods as I walked around trees that predated the writing of many modern religions. I looked up at a god, who’s core had been completely burned away and yet it stood, as if someone had taken a hot chisel to its body, but defiantly it stood and lived on.

I passed a man admiring this same tree

‘Amazing, isn’t it’

‘Yes’ he said continuing to look at the tree, he was older salt and pepper bearded with a dark jacket. He looked tired.

I kept walking on, as far as I dared before dark. I passed him while leaving he was staring at a fallen god. It could have been centuries since it had fallen, yet it lay there in massive house sized pieces in the forest. I wanted to stay.

I passed him and went on.

To this day I regret not staying and listening to the gods tell stories of a world we will never know.

I saw an elderly gentleman surrounded by a gaggle of family around him sitting on a bench near one of the lower entrances to the park. He was quiet, while those around him debated on how to get him either back up the path, or who should get the car and bring it down the mountain. No one really looking at him, merely speaking about him around him, none asking his opinion, he was just sitting there waiting for them to sort it out quietly.

I listened as I walked on; a younger man eventually went past me from this group later on, clearly in a hurry.