Giant Bamboo and Tall Timber are Not That Different - Neither are We

When I was 20 years old, I stumbled into a patch of giant bamboo in a rural area of Cebu, Philippines.

I was serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the time.

As my companion and I followed a rural trail, we found ourselves in the giant bamboo patch. Growing up in the Cascade Mountains of Northern California,

I had seen tall timber before, but never anything like this bamboo forest.

The light filtered through the thick bamboo stand in shades of green accented with gold and blue. The mature culms were at least nine inches thick and reached up to 100 feet into the blue sky.

There were smaller shoots of all sizes too, as if in a nursery protected by the prominent parents and siblings.

It seemed I could sit still and watch the youngsters growing.

I was awestruck.

The feeling of peace was the same as in a stand of mature timber back home. This thicket of giant bamboo was also a sacred grove.

The 7,000-mile distance between the tall timber of Nothern California and the giant bamboo in the Philippines disappeared in an instant.

In that moment, I learned home is where I am standing, no matter where that is on the face of the earth.

Timber, bamboo, people, and places are more alike in many ways no matter where they reside.

As humans, we definitely do not all look or sound the same. But, every one of us shares the same home. So, we can feel the kinship of the human family while celebrating our individuality.

We can all get along by choosing to focus on what we have in common instead of picking apart our insignificant tiny details of difference.

Thanks for reading!

Russell Anderson

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