Noland Trail

Outdoor Experience

Noland Trail
In our class discussion in October out by Lion’s Gate Bridge, we discussed how environment indicates timing and passing of time. For example, saplings indicate that there has been a recent bloom.
In my experience on the trail, I saw the passing of time in the all-too-swift setting of the sun, as I barely cleared the gap from the slight seclusion of the woods to the main road before the last light began to fall.
I was the last to leave.
I couldn’t bear to part with such a fleeting reprieve from the chaos of campus, yet in the cluster of students all looking for a moment’s peace in our brief given allotment to wander off, it felt a bit forced.
As Lane’s axiom goes, “sacred place chooses”
In that moment, perhaps it was I who tried to make the place something in that moment that it could not be. A quiet, restful, refuge, free from ties to ever-present obligations in the everyday.
The Noland Trail, at a mere few blocks from campus and a public and popular gathering spot on light breezy autumn days such as ours, it was hardly feasible.

Yet even my brief and less than ideal encounter with nature was enough to spark my muse. The mere placement of things and people can inspire.

The crunch of leaves
A change on the breeze
A tunnel of students part
Like the sea
For passersby
For families
The pinecones
Bear the fruits of trees
Honeysuckle,
Rosemary
Last light fading
Shadow of me
Painted on the bridge
I see
The place has found
a place
for me

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