The Lion's Bridge

Audrey Jolly

 

 

Taking long walks through the woods has always been enjoyable to be, although I never really focused too much on the true beauty of everything around me.  Sure, I appreciated the changing color of the leaves on the trees and the songs of the birds and the wind blowing gently through my hair.  But I never tried to become one with Nature, until I went on a walk near the Lion's Bridge.  Annie Dillard explains in her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, "Deep seeing requires patience, preparation, stillness, a spirit of humility and expectancy (210)."  So I tried to follow her example by concentrating and becoming still. 

 

I explored near the water, where the scent of the salt water intermingled with the crisp, autumn air, listening to the sound of the waves crashing.  I closed my eyes, letting the sound envelop me, allowing myself to relax and let the stress melt away.  After opening my eyes I peered out into the vast, open ocean and imagined all the many living things in it, and how all life is connected to each other.   Nature is a perfect chaos, there are storms and landslides and floods, yet Nature has an extraordinary way of healing itself, being reborn, exhibiting resiliency.  How perfect would it be if I could be as resilient as nature is.  There are many storms, landslides, and floods I face every day, and sometimes it is difficult to bounce back from them.  But Nature does it perfectly...even if it takes a long time to do so. 

 

I found a broken tree, perhaps it had been struck by lightening, or it was just sick.  It was communicating to me that it was weak, struggling.  It was a part of Nature that was imperfect and beyond healing.  Things in Nature will die, but that is inevitable.  Without the death of something, there cannot be new life.  I realized there was a voice in this given place, there were thriving things, dying things, and things being born.  There were voices everywhere, they were just waiting for me to listen.