The test of time

Last summer, my family took a road trip from mid-Saskatchewan to the West Coast. I've shared stories about some of the highlights, like the Parksville Sand Sculpting Competition, and also about how we managed to keep the 11-day trip affordable. But today, being TreeTuesday, I was inspired to share one moment of the journey that is etched most deeply in my mind.

We were a few days into our trip when we decided to give the kids another break from the drive and let them burn off some energy at the Enchanted Forest, just outside of Revelstoke, British Columbia. We had spent the night in Revelstoke, and two-days of travelling through the Rocky Mountains had started to take it's toll on my born-and-raised prairie sensitivities.

As much as I was enthralled by the breath-taking beauty of the mountain terrain, I couldn't shake the eerie feeling that something unstable and impermanent lay just below the surface of the stone peaks that surrounded us. Maybe it was claustrophobia settling in, or just an irrational fear, but I couldn't help but think that if something bad should happen -- like a forest fire or rock slide, neither of which are uncommon -- my little family and I would be trapped.

But then something happened that completely altered my perspective. While walking along a pathway near the Enchanted Forest, we came across a small fence enclosing a single tree, and a sign stating that this tree was well over 1,000 years old.

One thousand years. In some areas of the world, this is not remarkable. But the oldest building in my country is less than 350 years old. This tree -- this living thing -- had not only survived the natural disasters that I feared, but had remained in the same place, as the same tree, while the world around it experienced unprecedented change.

I still struggle to find the words to express how this made me feel. In a world where everything, at times, feels uncertain ... where we often feel in the midst of chaos, or on the verge of losing control, some things in life are certain, are dependable.

This tree had survived the test of time, and it gives me hope that, no matter what the future holds, we will too.

If you enjoyed this post, follow @redhens and leave a comment. You may also enjoy some of my previous posts:

• A lesson in love and responsibility
• Celebrating the beauty of Mother Earth
• The end to human hibernation