Weather changes the most familiar paths:
Snow buries landmark stones.
Deep puddles block the trail
From boots and paws.
Fallen trees bar the way.
Today the ground
Crumbles under my step
And my foot is suspended
Above the cracking path
I’m surprised,
But it’s not the first time
I've stepped on a frost heave.
For a moment I enjoy
Pretending that the Earth is giving way,
Opening
And I will fall through
And fall
And fall
Into an unimagined abyss.
My eyes open.
I'm standing on the trail
My right foot is crooked,
But cupped by the sustaining earth.
Eyeing the ground.
I seek out more frost heaves,
Step on them lightly
To feel the crust breaking
Reliving the perilous moment
When everything below fell away.
path
I am a tree for #tankatuesday
This weeks challenge involves using this website to find out what tree you are. I am an alder. The characteristics that immediately caught my attention were “trailblazer” and “pathfinder”, since I spend so much time in the woods.
Did I find this path? It has been worn into soil By thousands of feet. Now I add my steps to it My mind blazing a new way.
Although I often walk the same trails, they have a “same river twice” quality. I find that every hike is unique, and now matter how many times I walk the same path, my mind is renewed.
Have some fun and take the challenge here.
We follow nature
Last weekend we got about 4 inches of rain overnight. When I went on a hike, and saw what’s in this video, I thought “Funny how the water followed the path.”
My mind immediately alerted me to a potential fallacy. A “which came first” idea presented itself. Isn’t it more likely that water made this path? Rain overflow creates little streams, especially in the spring. Some are freshets, have a relatively deep bed, and can run for months if its a wet season. Not great for a path.
But a lot of time there are washes for when a big storm overflows the system of ponds and streams and rivulets, and more water runs off. As water always does, it tends to gather and find a way to flow down. I’m thinking these are the path makers: yes they get wet, but only briefly, and dry fairly quickly, which means we can walk on them most of the time.
Humans are smart, and you can also say we’re either thrifty or a bit lazy. It is far easier to follow a path given to us by nature than to have to hack a new path through its bushes, trees and tangles.
So my new thought is: “Look how we follow that path of water.”
Mark Bozeman 