172 the rice diet renewal
that I could get over my fear of heights by climbing a 50 - foot fi r
tree the fi rst day, a 100 - foot one the next day, then a 150 - foot
one the following day, and by the end of the week I ’ d be laugh-
ing at the top of a 300 - footer. I was crazy enough to take the dare
and proved him right. We had a blast, and after three months of
climbing trees daily and enjoying northern California and Oregon
vistas, we were in the best shape any of us had ever known, plus
we thought we were rich!
Those adventures are a book unto themselves, but reading
Richard Preston ’ s The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring
took me back to those thrilling days and to truths about tree roots
and life, which have sustained me physically, metaphysically, and
spiritually without my full knowledge of that which is not physically
seen yet grounds me and connects me with others, thus empow-
ering me to live my life with passion. Preston wrote, “ A redwood
tree sits on a fl at pancake of roots, spreading in all directions away
from the tree. A redwood has no taproot. A taproot is a strong,
vertical root, shaped like a carrot, that stabs straight down under
a tree and acts as an anchor, helping to keep the tree upright. The
pancake of roots under a redwood spreads out and narrows down
into a fi ne, dense mat of threads no more than about two feet
thick. These fi ne roots extend outward for unknown distances from
the tree, perhaps a hundred yards or more. They eventually merge
with the threadlike roots of other redwoods, forming a tangled mat
of roots. The roots of a redwood forest resemble a pad made of felt.
The pad seems to support all the redwoods that are in a stand; they
are all anchored by the common mat. ”
To fathom how a 2 - foot, or less, deep mat of fi ne threadlike
roots can hold a 370 - foot redwood for more than a thousand years
rocks our rational minds. Fortunately, the power of the support-
ive network for humans is equally beyond our comprehension.
So let ’ s bring these lofty truths from trees down to earth to assist
us in manifesting the fruits we are here to produce. Our passionate
potential and supportive network can be realized and renewed via
a multitude of practices, and creating a map to remind us of our