In Good Time
As I’ve started studying the geology of the lands I hike, I’ve really come to love the size and the scope of the story I see. For instance, last month I was in the Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota and the sedimentary geology of the place is the same as it is for the Gaudalupe Mountains and the town where I live. Basically, I’ve been from one end to the other of the Western Interior seaway, walking along the bottom of an ocean that covered the land during the Cretaceous. And while in the Badlands I saw evidence of volcanoes that came about in the middle Cenozoic in a volcanic period that also gave us the Davis Mountains and Big Bend to name just a few.
And the thing they all have in common is this, erosion. Wind and rain. Mountains rise. Volcanoes bubble. Seas depart. And when they do comes the wind and rain. As they fall and blow, the earth is moved around. Sculpted. Carved. Soft earth departs leaving behind volcanic domes, river valleys, canyons, gorges. And let’s not forget the ice. Frozen water. It pressed and compressed and scrubbed. Then it melted and there were floods.
And when I think of those changing landscapes, I think of my own life, and it’s changing landscapes and think we have a lot in common, me and the earth. There will be good days, and there will be bad. Mountains will rise, volcanoes erupt, seas will cover my soul. And yet the wind and rain of love and caring from friends and family will always be there to round off the edges, transforming the landscape, transforming me, creating beautiful valleys, peaceful glades, cool lakes. And all it will take is time. And I, like the earth, will be remade.