Joel Holsteen- Annie Dillard #1

A recent trip to the Nolan trail reminded me of what Annie Dillard mentioned in her book, Three, I came across a section that sparked an interesting thought. When Annie wrote about how she used to visit and explore this island in Tinker Creek. She describes the island, the way to get to it and how the island draws her to it. Annie says that that “she will return to it as a man years later will seek out the battlefield where he lost a leg or an arm.” To me this shows that nature has a powerful effect on people and can draw them back to enjoy it again and again. The main thing that I noticed through our trip down to the Lions Bridge is that even though we acknowledge nature, most of us don’t stop to “smell the roses” or enjoy it for what it’s worth. While walking on the trail I saw many people running and few walking, and those who were walking were mainly just talking and not even looking around. After actually looking around and experiencing nature you tend to notice things that you might have missed before like something as bizarre as devil’s walking stick, or that some of the dead trees that were laying on the ground had fungi or mushrooms growing on them even though the trees were dead. Then I looked up and saw that the trees were a lot taller than I thought and you could tell which trees had dead branches and which were about to blossom. Everything is different and fascinating when you stop and actually look and think about what is going on out in nature. From birds landing on the water and plucking fish from it after swooping down out of the sky to squirrels scurrying about collecting or stashing food, it’s all very captivating. Hopefully, I can find a place like the author did and share the same experience she had and still does. I also hope that I will make an effort to enjoy nature more often for the experience and what it has to offer.