Surface appearances are only that: topography grows, shrinks, compresses, spreads, disintegrates, and disappears; every scene is temporary and is composed of fragments from other scenes.
John McPhee, Annals of the Former WorldIndeed, one night the venerable Wall Arch in Natural Bridges National Monument suddenly geomorphed into a pile of rubble. Water leeched away the carbonate cement that had glued its sand crystals together for millennia, so the huge arch collapsed.
Out here in the desert, with its clear air and clear thinking, you can see the earth wasting slowly towards the rivers and sea. The geologists say there once was over 5000 feet of earth above this area. Eons of erosion removed it, and will continue doing so. The life cycle of the desert is very, very long.
On the other hand, we can see the seasons cycling through the forests and meadows every year, over and over. Spring green leaves and color-bright flowers cheer us out of winter. The fruits of summer's sun warm our hearts and fill our bellies. Then the sighing of pale yellow grasses and flaming autumn trees bring a poignant reminder that the end of the year approaches. We hunker down through winter's white chill, warming ourselves at the hearth as we await spring's renewal.
In Heart of the World, Ian Baker writes of '...mytho-poetic terrain...a landscape lush with symbols, fulcrums where perception can turn to revelation.'
For me, the desert speaks more truly of our life cycle than the forest. While I have treasured the returns of many springs and autumns, my life has only one precious cycle. As I feel the loss of a best friend and then a brother, and see cancer change the course of lives dear to me, I recognize nature's long arm reaching in to bend our paths. The fortunate among us have developed skills for self-determination and goal directness, exercising our allotment of free will. But nature gradually or suddenly is withdrawing the loan.
So now, at 70, in mid-October, I'm in my own very sweet autumn.
So now, at 70, in mid-October, I'm in my own very sweet autumn.
In his book The Secret Knowledge of Water, Craig Childs reminds us that even though it is scarce in the desert, water has shaped (and continues to shape) the entire region.
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