A Path Drawn By Man

By Alli Rogers • Jun 4th, 2008 • Category: Artists in Residence

I went for a walk with my dog this morning instead of going to church. I’ll go to our night service. There is something wonderful about being outside on a Sunday morning.

Oso and I walked on a paved path next to a lake. While I was close enough to still be deciding if I should go back for my rain jacket, we saw a turtle. A large one, farther away from the water than I’ve ever seen at this park. He was walking along where the pavement met the dirt, living in two worlds. He had spike-looking things on his tail and lots of extra skin attaching him to his shell. I loved watching it spread out as he took his slow steps forward. Oso started growling so we kept walking.

It gets so humid here and half way into the walk I was thankful I had left my jacket.

We met other dogs along the way. One dog who flopped down onto her little brown stomach every time another dog came near. “She’ll never be the alpha dog”, said the man walking her. That made me laugh and Oso walked with his head turned until they were out of sight.

There are so many fun shaped leaves in the woods. Cartoon leaves, pottery barn leaves, ominous leaves and leaves that remind me of the plastic kind that decorate school classrooms in the fall. I made a mental note to try to paint some leaves soon.

Towards the end of the path, before the point where we turn around, part of the pavement has started falling into the lake. There are orange posts to warn of the danger, but it still has an earthquake, movie scene sort of quality to it that sort of startles me.

You can’t bring dogs on the unpaved trails at this park, can’t let them trample through the dirt and rocks and disturb the other animals that live there. Which is why we were on the paved path. But something has always seemed out of place to me about the yellow lines next to the tall forest trees. Something seems strange to me about the turtle who seemed far too vulnerable, and the small peacock blue bird I saw by the speed bump as we drove out of the parking lot after our walk.

I am glad they paved that road so that Oso and I could walk down it on days like today, but whatever park authority personnel that happened to be driving over that broken spot when it started to fall in to the water must have felt the irony of it as I did today.

Because in so many different ways, we pave right over the ground, carving out paths for our feet to travel down. We let the cement dry on top of the earth whose foundations were set in place by God.

It just made me think.

That whenever the path we walk on is a path drawn by man, it is bound to crack and fall into the lake.

Does it Resonate with you?

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