We were all quickly reminded of the power of nature this summer, when we watched a fellow community member struggle against the odds, and
eventually make his way out of a disastrous situation. We are all thankful for
that and the amazing work of a variety of people that came together to save his
life and make the area safe again for others. For me, it became a time of
reflection, as I was just there the day before the occurrence, having gone for a bike ride
with my son to that exact spot at Half Way Creek. So quickly it can happen. So
quickly we are brought into the folds of Mother Nature’s arms and told what to
do instead of telling nature what we are going to do to it.
As an artist, I spend time manipulating the environment. I
want my perennials arranged in a way that emphasizes the texture of the leaves
and the succession of colour from the blooms. I want to carve out pockets of
dirt to urge vegetables out of its ground, cut down trees that don’t fit in
with the architecture, and plant more trees to give a “natural feel” to my
yard. I think of both form and function when playing this game with the flora that
surrounds me. I ridiculously think that
I can control the earth and the plants until the critters come along and chew
on my lettuce leaves, and burrow holes through my tomatoes. The grubs dig deep
within the grass and turn my yard into a lumpy obstacle course. The rain comes
and gives all of my plants root rot and the wind snaps the branches off of my
delicate trees.
You don’t have to look any further than Canada’s own Group
of Seven to see how our weather can arch trees beyond the point of no return
and fill the skies with impending doom. (Image Google search “Group of Seven
storms”). We can all relate to that feeling as we watch the elements unfold
their wrath before us and have a story to tell of our “close call” with Nature.
Therein lays the balance; the give and take if you will that we should consider
the thought of surrender at times instead of trying to fight something that is
bigger than ourselves. I believe that Mother Earth does this all the time for
us. She is put in a position of absolute surrender. I am all too quickly
reminded of this when I take walks in the woods and see old garbage that has
been completely smothered by the fresh green shoots of a native plant, and I
think, “Ah Nature, you’re too forgiving.”
Every year my husband and I do an exploration on Canada Day.
We pick a back road somewhere down the 105 and we venture into the unknown,
seeking out what Mother Nature literally offers us in our backyard. It is an
artist’s dream and I spend a lot of time photographing her extraordinary,
untiring beauty. We are always pleasantly surprised and thankful for what she
offers and this year was no exception. Yet even in the middle of nowhere, we
are confronted with the essence of human presence, usually in the form of
garbage, or four wheeler tracks that have ripped through the ground. If we went
on these adventures with the intent to pick up garbage, we’d never make it back
home. And we too were confronted by a large road wash out that had engulfed the
road and easily pushed all of the road’s content downstream, along with several
massive trees, which even sheered the sides off of large embankments, leaving
years of sediment layers newly exposed. And as I looked upstream, I saw the
little critter that was perhaps the cause of all this, and couldn’t help but
think if this animal’s oblivious ignorance, simply doing what nature had
intended it to do; what it was instinctually born to do. This beaver had no
intent of harm, no reason to show resentment towards humans and how they plowed
a road straight through his living room. He was just listening to the running
water that was swooshing through the culvert and had an instinctual desire to
fix it. And even though that cut into our mission of further exploration, and
cuts into the productivity of others, and costs us money and man hours and so
on, I can’t help but think that it’s a good reason to stop and think about just
exactly what I’m doing as a human being, and an artist, and a citizen of this
beautiful earth, and make decisions as to whether I really want to put up a
fight with the might of Mother Nature, or graciously surrender to her
significance.
