A quiet little creek
barely known
silently feeds the lake
Down the three flights of stairs, over the bridge, past the gazebo and right into part of the forest. Follow the path turn down the hill and follow the creek.
Today I tried to find my reflection point. It was hard, there were a lot of interesting places that I had been, the gazebo and island, Frisbee golf holes in the forest, and the garden of the five lions. The only problem with those places were they weren’t just mine. Everyone knew about those places and I wanted my reflection point to be my reflection point and mine alone, I didn’t want to be interrupted every 3 minutes.
Walking through the forest I eventually fell into( not literally) a little creek on the edge of the forest. It was calm and forgotten and it was mine.
Time passed as I came to know my spot. The creek icing over into the lake, The little pine sapling, the tree that was inspired by the arch in St. Louis, and the two little trees that pushed away to give a view of the lake anyone rarely sees.
And while I was getting to know my space, I noticed footprints in the snow that were not my own. Some were from some animal, others were from someone’s shoes. Somebody had trespassed on my spot, or was it the other way around? Truthfully it was neither of those options, the creek and the spot belong to no one. Yet it still surprised me that sometime within the last 2 days, someone had done what I had done, and found the spot and just watched the lake, and listened.
When I had stopped myself and listened, I heard so many sounds. Birds in the background, dried beech leaves shivering in the cold wind, the quiet tired creek, and cars. So many cars. I couldn’t believe it. This piece of land rarely touched an managed by people had so much noise and people around it. It was disturbing how difficult it was to find a completely isolated spot in nature, but conversely it was nice to know spaces like this could be found so close to “civilization.” I liked how even in such a busy place there are still places like this.