I’ve been on something of a hiatus for the past several months, and have had the opportunity to spend some considerable time in the quiet and solitude of the giant Coastal Redwood forests in Northern California.

I don’t think I could improve on a quote from John Steinbeck, who said, “The Redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe…they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time.”

There’s no getting over the immensity of these ancient, giant trees…or the unexpected silence of these forest lands, but, upon pushing past my initial reaction to seeing living things nearly 40 stories tall, my inevitable question was, "why"?

Why did these giant trees exist at all - and why only in this one place on the entire planet?

I did some research and discovered that the Coastal Redwoods are actually a rain forest. I learned that there are two types of rain forests: tropical rain forests (like the popular ones found in South America), and temperate rain forests. The Redwood forests are temperate rain forests. Some of the trees in the remaining forest lands have been around for over 4,000.  And they are simply magnificent.

Rain forests  have been aptly called the "earth's lungs". They absorb 40% of the harmful carbon dioxide and other toxins found in the earth's atmosphere, and turn it over into valuable, pure, clean oxygen through photosynthesis.  Additionally, over 25% of all the medicines and pharmaceuticals used today come from resources found only in these rain forests.

So the rain forests are not only earth's lungs, they are also earth's medicine cabinet.

It is clear that the creator, in wisdom, placed these giant trees in this area of the planet to remove disease-causing toxins from the atmosphere, and generate vast amounts of clean, healthy oxygen for our planet. These millennial giants, with their immeasurably diverse biomass, are positioned to bring strategic balance across the globe, in order to provide an ongoing clean, healthy atmosphere for the entire earth.

Whenever we don't fully understand the complete, accurate purpose of something, waste, misuse, and ultimately abuse is almost inevitable. So, unfortunately, in the past two centuries over 95% percent of these magnificent Redwood forests were cut down for commercial purposes. Profiteers wanted chairs and land barons wanted dirt. It's little wonder that as the Redwood forests shrunk, and shrunk, and shrunk, there was a consistent decrease in air quality in the Northern hemisphere, as well as an increase in disease and even the development of new diseases.

Take a moment and think about your personal resources, talents and skills. You have an unmatched design, and have the capability of contributing to your life and the lives of others in ways that will never be forgotten.  But many of you are down-trading yourselves for as little as $15 an hour.  You’re made in God’s image…and you’re exchanging that incredible gifting for $15 an hour.  Hmmm.

No one really knows the exact correlation between the devastation to the Redwoods and the increase in disease, poor air quality, and even climate change, but thanks to the Save the Redwoods League and government intervention, the remaining trees are protected by Federal and State forest agencies. It is illegal to harm one of these trees.

We can all breath a little better because of that.