time and the woods

Working outside everyday in the woods is a mind expanding experience. To see natural processes at work with no, or at least little, human influence is truly incredible. If you know what to look for you can see time passing, literally see time. You can see this in cities too but, to me, it is somehow easier out here. You see erosion changing mountains and rivers, you see trees growing and dying, you see animals in the midst of it all struggling to survive. These are the realities of nature. Walking into them and merely observing them, meaning not fully being a part of them, gives you a sense of watching a time-lapse video or something, which, of course, you are but there is something more to it. It is like watching ice melt or clouds change and pass. You know what is coming, what the end result will be, but you are still interested in seeing exactly how it takes place. There is something profound about it. Something truly profound. It is life. It is us. We have removed ourselves from the process to the best of our abilities but we are still a part of it. Walking into the woods and really spending some time there is like going home. I, at least, feel an incredibly deep sense of ease and comfort. Things make sense in a way that they rarely do. Everything, even though it is in a constant state of flux, feels just right. Everything feels as though it is in exactly the right place even though it was only through an absurdly random process that anything arrived at that exact point and place in time. Order in the midst of the ultimate disorder. Nature. Makes me swoon.