A Very Big Tree

When I went to Hawaii with my mother in 2001, we were standing outside a restaurant in Hilo and we both looked in wonder at that tree back there. The scale of living things in Hawaii is amazing, more so in Hilo, and we'd never seen a tree that big before. We asked my mother's Aunty, whom we had been visiting, how old that tree was, but she didn't know, and in fact, she confessed, she had never noticed that tree before. It's one of those small moments I won't forget. Life can be so monumental sometimes, and we don't even realize it.

I went to that same restaurant, quite by coincidence, while in Hilo a couple of weeks ago. It made me miss Mom horribly.