Today I saw grass…well, what grass would look like if it were brownish, muddy and flattened from living under the snow for three months. It was still grass, emerging in patches as if the snow was finally giving up its hold and letting go of winter, opening up windows into the earth below. Where I thought there were hills, I discovered they were not hills at all but snow piled so densely they had become part of the terrain. The entire landscape seems to be changing and since I did not know what it looked like before, it seems a bit surreal.
I think for the most part we don’t expect the earth to change and shift a great deal, at least not in a day. I think we expect, with the exception of construction workers, eccentric landscapers and Christo and Jeanne-Claude, that the topography of our surroundings don’t really change, at least not so quickly that we for a moment may loose our bearings a bit. Years ago in the region where I grew up, we had a great deal of flooding. There were rivers were there were lakes before, and lakes were there was dry land. In my mind I still have an image of driving down a familiar road and looking off to the side to see a lake. For a moment I was confused, disoriented. I thought I had driven too far, or taken a wrong turn. Then I saw a building sitting in the middle of the lake that was definitely not a houseboat, although the owner probably wished that it was, and realized this lake was not there before and had never been in my life time.
Funny how unsettling it can be when our physical world changes around us. A feeling we share as we speculate and gossip about a new subdivision, a new high rise, a new highway. We feel nostalgia about the way things were, even though we may appreciate the possibilities of what may be coming. Now, I doubt I will feel nostalgia about the way Wisconsin has looked these past almost two and a half months I have been here. Although I will certainly never forget. I am however appreciating the change and looking forward to the possibilities that may be coming…
Filed under: New beginnings
