Tree rings and eulogies

I love nature centers whenever we visit places. Whether it’s a bear paw print in plaster of Paris, the fur of a seal, or merely a tree slice, I’m fascinated.

Since we have such huge and old trees out here in California, you can see some amazing tree slices.

Muir Woods, just north of San Francisco has a massive tree slice from a giant Sequoia that was over 1000 years old before it crashed to the earth. This tree slice has been educating visitors since 1930. What’s particularly interesting is that the tree ring labels have changed over the years! “Columbus discovers America” has changed to “Columbus Sails to America.” Gone is the reference to the 1215 signing of the Magna Carta in England. In its place, "1325 - Aztecs begin construction of Tenochitlan, Mexico.”

Whatever historic points you want to highlight, the study of tree rings (dendochronology) reveals amazing data about climate and weather through the centuries. I also mention a famous painting in London that art historians have been able to date due to testing the age of wood panels that they were painted on.

The fat tree rings show years of plenty, years of ample water, sunlight and nutrients in the soil. The skinny tree rings demonstrate years of hardship. Years of too-cold temperatures, drought, disease or fire. You can learn a lot about the climate due to the tale of the tree rings.

All this musings about tree rings happened because of a request from my sister. She wanted me to write a eulogy for her.

She’s not near death, nor even sick. But thanks to a class she is taking at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, her class was to have others write a eulogy.

The point was, how do you want to be remembered? And if we back up from that, I would add, how should we spend our days?

Annie Dillard said, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

Her professor remarked that some people wanted to be remembered for their accomplishments. What companies they started, built or ran. What awards they had received.

But I told stories in my eulogy about how my sister literally, saved me from burning to death in a fire. I talked about her help in finding me a job, but what I didn’t talk about, was her business accomplishments. And they are significant.

It made me think about how I wanted to be remembered. What would my friends say? What would your friends say?

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We forget that our relationships matter. They are eternal. And so why did I find myself spending so little time with the people that matter? The friends that I love? Was I really accomplishing eternal value hunched over my laptop spooling out words day after day? Maybe, a little. But not as much as making the time for loved ones.

Maybe our greatest accomplishments are in loving the people around us.

In this podcast I talk about getting together with my dear friend Sandy and how restorative, hilarious, and wonderful it was. It made me think about building fat tree rings of plenty in my life. Plenty of love, laughter and moments of significance. As opposed to, skinny, narrow and tight years of deprivation and minimal fellowship.

Maybe there is a friend you need to call. To reconnect with. Concentrate on building fat rings in your life. It has eternal value.

Psalm 90:12.

Do you like to learn about how God speaks through nature?

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