The Fire of Life

We returned last week from a Californian adventure. We spent two and a half weeks outside, in nature – skiing, hiking and biking. I have come to realise that adventures are my form of therapy or meditation. A holiday for me used to be lying on a beach with a book. During a particularly busy week I sometimes think it would be nice to do that for a few hours but now a holiday is about getting up in the morning, getting everyone out of the house and not stopping until the day is done. Joy comes in the form of home-made smoked salmon sandwiches in the backpack, a log in a forest to eat them on and at least 25,000 steps on my Garmin.

And that’s exactly what we did. Even better, we were lucky enough to spend the majority of our trip with family – my brother and his family, and my brother-in-law and his. For those of you who live away from your home country, I know you feel the same – seeing cousins together, bonding, sharing experiences is as heart-warming as anything can be.

My brother Campo, his wife Katie and their three beautiful girls are on their own adventure. They left the UK for a year to travel the world with the goal of discovering how we can live better, together. They are immersing themselves in different, more collective communities and cultures; places that might have traditionally been called ‘communes’ but today are about living with intention and thought. Having visited dozens of such communities around the world they plan to implement the best parts and create a modern community and support system in the UK where people live happier lives with people around them that share their vision.

If you are interested, you can follow the Campbells here or here. They are fun and entertaining to follow!

Whilst in California we saw a lot of burnt-out forests. Acres and acres of black. The wild-fires over the past few years have been devastating in that part of the world. It’s heart-breaking to see any tree burned to the ground, but particularly so when you are looking at the giant sequoia trees, some of the most remarkable living beings on the planet.

This tree is 2,700 years old. It’s impossible to appreciate the scale of it in a photo, but the seven humans standing at the bottom puts it in some context.

But then I remembered my ecology lessons. Fire is a natural part of forest life – trees have lived with fire for all of their existence. Many plant species, sequoias included, need fire to reproduce. The fire opens up the seeds, it clears the forest floor, allows sunlight in and enhances the long-term health of the ecosystem.

Unfortunately, we humans messed up the natural progression of fire by suppressing it, thinking it was a bad thing. Without regular fires to clear the forest of dead vegetation, the vegetation piled up and the eventual fires became like infernos – hotter and more dangerous than before, engulfing far more forest than before and leaving destruction in their wake.

Sequoia trees are fire-resistant but only up to a point. In the last couple of years hundreds of trees died due to the intensity of the blazes.

It’s such a striking example of humans trying to suppress something that we thought was painful and dangerous but that was natural and healthy all along. Fire is the fuel – it gives rise to life. It might mean a bumpy ride, but with that comes long-term vitality.

The similarity with investing is striking to me.

The stock market catches fire regularly. Fire is a regular and healthy part of the ride. It burns for a while. But one day you wake up and the fire is out and it has given way to a flourishing and growing market.

Like lightning striking the forest floor, it’s unpredictable, we can’t know when the fire will ignite. Nor can we know for how long it will burn. But we know it’s needed. It’s natural and healthy.

Suppressing it will only cause more problems.

If we don’t accept fire as part of forest life, the trees will not grow (there was virtually no giant sequoia tree reproduction during the 1900s when we started suppressing fire).

If we don’t accept volatility in our portfolio, it won’t grow. It’s the volatility that gives rise to the growth. It’s the fact that we ride out the temporary downs that gives us the permanent ups.

When we truly understand that, we can let go of the anxiety and stress that comes from market downturns. We can learn to love them, like a forester loves a natural fire.

But even better, we can be like the tree and take advantage of the fire and use it to fuel future growth.

georgie@libertywealth.ky