Later the same day (April 15, 2010), Bishop Tikhon and I went to Rickett’s Glen State Park. There were a lot of waterfalls, but we only saw three of them. We also followed an instructive trail which told us all about the life of the forest.
This state park is called an “old growth” forest, which means that there are a lot of hemlocks and white pines. Most of the trees are over 30″ in diameter, over 125 feet tall and over 200 years old. There is not a lot of underbrush, but there is a lot of what is called “humus.” At first I thought it was the middle-eastern food I like to sneak from my master when I can. But it turns out that this humus is not only spelled differently, but it refers to the type of earth on the floor of the forest which holds the nutrients and helps feed the trees and also keeps the animals warm.
I also found out that “humus” is the latin word for earth or soil, and from it we get English words such as “humility” and “humble.” I thought to myself: “That makes a lot of sense. Even though most of the trees are very tall and appear strong, they would not survive without the help of the humble humus which is always down below but provides a lot of energy. That must be why humility is so important in the Church: the humble people like the saints appear to be nothing, and sometimes are treated like dirt, but that really shows that they are much more powerful than those who have external power and authority. The nutrients of the humble person is the grace of God.”
Humus smells good, too!
This tree was over 500 years old before it fell over in 2005. You can tell the age of a tree by looking at the rings inside. One light ring and one dark ring equals one year.
This strange growth is called a "conk" or a "burl" and it forms when a fungus enters through a wound on the tree, which defends itself by forming extra layers of bark around the wound.
