So much can happen in five years. In the life of a tree, that first germination of a new seed, developing on to a seedling, putting down roots in its forever home, growing on tall to heights beyond the person who planted it, perhaps even reaching maturity and setting out seeds of its own. For some, five years is a lifetime, a window of legacy, a real era.
In my tenure as the inaugural Arboretum Director at Cypress Lawn Arboretum and Memorial Park across the past 20 seasons, hundreds of trees have been planted, dozens of tree-themed events and educational programs have been hosted, and a place that has long celebrated life has embraced a reimagining of what a memorial park may live on as for future generations, with a firm identity as a meaningful place of trees for all to enjoy – friends, neighbors, and tree-lovers near and far.
Perhaps the most impactful singular development of these past five years is the growing heritage of our annual tree planting celebratory day, held each year on the Saturday after Veteran’s Day and before Thanksgiving – the seasonal celebration of the beginning of our rainy season in Colma, and the establishment of so many new wooden beings emerging into the collective story of Cypress Lawn – this is our day, Arboretum Day.
The idea for this day, the seed of our celebration, germinated from an understanding that trees have needs just like people. One of these critical needs is that most precious commodity for all living beings on Earth – water!! Without this lifeblood, we stress and struggle, then wilt and wither, and eventually fade away altogether. Water is life, and here in the Mediterranean climate of California, water comes with the season of autumn following a long summer of annual drought.
Knowing this, and the need that we share with the wooden ones, it just makes sense in our Golden State to plant trees just in time for November rains; to work in kinship with Mother Nature in the intentional stewardship of the land, so we may all one day bear the fruits of our forest of the future!
So, as we look forward to this fifth annual celebration of life giving, I remind you to think of the words of an arborist before his time, a tree-lover from the founding days of Colma and the story of Cypress Lawn, the first mayor of our cemetery city and an inspiration of legacy every day on my own tree stewardship journey; I remind you of the words of a humble fellow named Mattrup Jensen:
“I hope that man may someday be as noble as a living tree…”
– Excerpt from poem “Trees” by M. Jensen, circa 1932
A final call, a challenge, listen! Heed the words of the “Father of Colma” and embrace the nobility of the standing, silent, strong trees; their wisdom is ours to grow in kinship alongside, a shared journey that is rooted in the very origin of the Cypress way, this place that, in truth, was an arboretum even before it became a cemetery. We are stronger together, we are growing forever, we plant trees with the weather. I hope you join us, both for this fifth annual Arboretum Day and in the ongoing, perpetual celebration of life here at Cypress Lawn Arboretum.
