It's been a busy month. Often, life creates a big stack of chores and tasks. It's hard to see over the mound to the other side. April is often the month when it hits the hardest. Taxes and accounting and bills and serious people dominate the energy. There are forms and rules and procedures. Even my car registration is due in April. This year I need a smog certificate.

Soon it will be May. Yesterday, when I was walking to the bank to pay an April 15th tax bill, I realized that I hadn't smelled sweet, fresh air for awhile. I had the urge to find a tree in the woods. May is a good month for trees. They are in glorious, green foliage here in California—full awakening. You can talk to a tree in May and it most likely will reward you with shade and a rustling of its leaves. It makes one sad that so many trees have given their lives for the IRS. In a humane world, how can a tree be turned into a tax form?

Since I haven't touched my camera in a couple of weeks (a sad condition that is about to change) I had to dig through the archives to find a tree that made me feel like May. This redwood tree is along a path on Mt. Tamalpais. I remember stopping in my tracks when I came upon it on a particularly weary day. Redwood trees are evergreens so the foliage is rather consistent year round. However, on a warm day their gift is an indescribable scent of spicy bark. It is bewitching, mesmerizing, the elixer of the woods.

It is now that I need that tree, or one just like it. It's not that things have been bad—life feels quite wonderful at the moment. I just need a the smell of a redwood tree, a trail and a camera. I will report back soon with some new discoveries.

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A Tree in the Woods