This is not the first time I have written about the wooded park that I walk in for lunch on a regular basis. I can’t help but be moved by what is happening there.
It has seen some real upheaval this winter and spring as swollen river waters have eroded the banks and flowed up and onto trails. There used to be 6-8 feet of trees and shrubs in between the flowing waters and the trail I meander.
Every day I take the same path and there is less and less of the trail to walk on.
I can see the cracks in the soil that will soon lead to another piece sliding into the river and becoming one with it. Trees that once stood proudly lining its banks now lay in its persistent waters as evidence of the river’s ever present caress.
It is both sad and beautiful at the same time as I view these changes through my humanness. My human privilege.
My human mind wants to use words like damage, erosion and loss.
Someone might say, “The bank is losing it’s battle with the river.” Or even more human-centric, “I am losing my trail to the river.”
The root ball above has now moved down in line with the ones in the background…
But nature does not make this same assessment. Nature doesn’t put this judgement onto itself. It doesn’t think in terms of winners and losers. No one is wrong, IT SIMPLY IS. It is more a graceful (or not so graceful) dance than any destruction.
Viewing the way these involuntary actors in an organic drama interact without any thought of judgement makes me think of how it has been popular lately to use the expression “I am broken” when talking about our own perceived fractures and splinters as human beings.
I understand that it is important for some to recognize that there is something going on with us that hurts, that we are dealing with something and not feeling like the person we want to be.
Most of the time it has to do with strong emotions like grief or depression. Emotions that feel like weakness. Recognizing it helps us to fix or work on whatever we feel is not right with us. Not right by society’s standard anyway. Those times when we feel we are not meeting expectations or fitting into a mold.
But the truth is we are not really broken. We are simply human. Human in all it’s beautiful shades and stages. Human and exactly as God has designed us to be. Never perfect. Full of flaws, doubt, anxiety, worry, joy, elation. The whole spectrum. THE WHOLE GLORIOUS AND MESSY JOURNEY.
We don’t have to be happy or perfect ALL the time. To think so only perpetuates the myth that that is possible. IT IS NOT.
The pain of what we are feeling is real. But we don’t do ourselves any favors by adding the guilt of not meeting someone else’s expectations to our feelings of sadness, loss, hopelessness or unworthiness that we all experience at some time in our lives. ALL OF US.
The river does not apologize. The tree does not give up hope. The soil does not judge itself unworthy. And neither should we.
We have so much to learn from nature. Its pace can be patient or drastic. Everlasting or gone in the blink of an eye. It can stand the test of time by simply bending, adjusting, and growing. It takes what is given and often becomes even more than imagined. Even more than what is thought possible.
Nature simply and eventually finds a way. Its own path. Its evolution and rebirth.
And we can, too. Without the judgement.
Sometimes it is better to focus more on the whole journey and not just the steps along the way.
We are not broken.
This is a section of the Skykomish River at Al Borlin Park in Monroe, WA. Here are a few other posts where I have talked about this trail: Hold On and On Uneven Ground.
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