The things we find deep in the woods

Shaped by history
London, ON
August 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram

At the lowest point of a steep valley deep in the woods, the water runs, almost silently. It's easy to miss it, a creek so tiny and unassuming you have to look closely to ensure it's still moving, still alive.

Not to worry, it is. And when you get right down to the beds of rocks that border this particular stretch, one thing becomes become absolutely clear: Nature always wins.

The rocks you see here? Scoured to a relentlessly smooth edge over countless years. The trees? Grown, generation after generation, since long before there was such a thing as human history. The very space we're in? Formed by plate tectonics, then shaped by wind, water, fire, and more recently, us.

But here's the thing: Long after we're no longer here, the forces of nature will continue to shape this place. Resculpt the land. Cover it with trees. Smooth the rocks.

As they always have. As they always will.

So on a quiet Saturday afternoon late in a summer most of us would rather forget, I crouch down and capture this scene. It only takes 1/100 of a second, and as soon as I get up it's already begun the process of shape-shifting into something else.

No one notices because no one's looking.

But we should. We might learn something.

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