The Order of Things
Patterns in nature fascinate me. Fallen leaves, a bamboo grove, waves at high tide. The eye zooms in on the shape of each part and then back out on the fuller pattern.
We order things in the home, matched socks aligned in the dresser drawer. Cutlery in the kitchen. Jigsaw puzzle pieces.
We reorder things outside, too. Like a magpie or squirrel, we collect. We take from there and put it over here. We make piles. We move rocks and make stone walls. The National Park Service says “Take only photos, leave only footprints” but sometimes, we’re rule breakers.
One Fall day, I reordered the pine cones. Then, I collected the beached detritus and settled on a ship shape path.
I’ve started to work on a fantasy garden out in the woods behind our house. I’ve been cleaning up the forest floor and started a random, drunken path out of soapstone, granite and quartz cut-outs. But nature will reorder again and again, hiding the path in the fall leaves.
terriloui 