In the waning days of summer, I drove into the night across the moonlit desert to Great Basin National Park. I wanted to go sit with some bristlecone pine trees and listen, the best I could, to their counsel. The summer had left me unsettled, what with Covid-19 and social inequalities wracking the world. I had read that bristlecone pines live as long as 4000 to 5000 years. The signs in the grove I visited identified two trees with estimated ages of 3200 and 3300 years and said they were “born” in 1150 and 1230 BC. I tried to get my head around what it meant to put down roots at an elevation of 10,000 feet on the flank of the 13,000 foot high Wheeler Peak, in the basin and range province of the North American continent, and stand there for over 3000 years, long long before anyone had imposed these names on the place. The long life span of bristlecone pines is credited to their unusually slow growth and fine-grained resinous wood. A sign titled “Adversity” claimed that due to the adversity of the environments where they live, bristlecone pines lay down very narrow growth rings of compact resinous wood that is very resistant to decay.
The Counsel of Bristlecone Pine
Here is what came into my mind as I moved among the trees:
Find your niche
Stake your ground
Keep company
Build a strong core
Develop tough skin
Twist and turn as you need to
Take your time
Grow slowly
Hold on however you can
You don’t get away without scars
Parts of you can die
While other parts live on
Regenerate
Terri has a BA from the University of California at Berkeley in Environmental Design and a Masters in Communication and Conflict Studies from the University of Utah. She is also a mother, which has taught her as much about life and relationship as her academic studies.
