Marine Creek Lake Trail

 This past weekend one of my friends asked me if I wanted to go on a walk, and being that we are both sick of walking on the trinity, we got to search on the internet. About 20 minutes from TCU is the Marine Creek Lake Trail. It is a 6-mile loop around the lake. When we first arrived, I was pleasantly surprised by how many people were out that day. There is a fishing dock that some people were standing on with their lines cast in the water. Families sat on benches near the parking lot, eating a Sunday lunch. There were families also taking a walk on their nicely paved paths together. Bikers and joggers also traversed the path. One thing about me is that I find the most peace around bodies of water. Over the summer, when I am not working, I am at the beach, and that is one thing I miss when I am in North Texas, so I must get my fix in other ways, such as traveling to a lake. The first picture is right off the path as you descend from the parking lot. To my left is a dock where two men were camped out fishing. I enjoy this picture because it captures the soft ripples of the water. I also like the sky in this photo; at the top of the picture, it is a darker blue, and it becomes lighter as it goes down until it is a light bluish, which almost looks white with a hint of blue right in front of our line of sight above the trees on the other side of the lake.

As we continued around the path, I came across these two bushes. The vibrant colors drew my attention, and I knew I had to snap a photo. When I tried to identify these plants using an online service, there were multiple results, and each website I used came up with different answers. Nonetheless, I found these plants beautiful and stood out against the other plants in their vicinity. They add duality because they are the only plants that contrast what surrounds them. Duality in nature is easy to observe; it seems that nature relies on this duality and provides balance.

I took the next photo because these plants were growing out of the water at the lake’s edge. It almost looks like switchgrass which can grow in water, but it could be problematic in the long term. Most of it has lost its color and looks dead or dying. You can also tell from the photo that the grass is taller than me. Back where I live in South Carolina (the Lowcountry), there are a ton of marshes and wetlands, so seeing this here in Texas caught me by surprise, considering that it was growing out of a lake as well.  

The final photo here is of a group of standalone trees. Most people would look at them and think there is nothing special about them, and while that may be true, there is something unique about them. One of the key themes from Loren Eiseley’s work The Judgement of The Birds is finding magic outside and nature's marvels. It is about going out into nature and celebrating those magical moments when they arise. In his work, there are brief experiences that all culminate in his essay. In one scene, he is just in a New York City Hotel room, and in another, he’s walking under a streetlamp. But it’s how he interprets those moments in nature that finds meaning for himself. Even a tiny spider took on a more significant meaning for Eiseley. I can look at these trees and think they are insignificant, while someone else can find them inspiring. When I look at them, I immediately notice how sparse they are, how spread out they are, and how their limbs are all twisted in multiple angles. I could look at these trees and assume that with the coming winter, the trees are sparse from the mounting stress of the incoming cold weather we have been receiving. I could also assume that these trees all belong to the same species and that they are constantly communicating with one another. Someone else may say I’m wrong and give a host of other observations and their interpretation of the trees. But that is nature.

There was nothing magical about my walk around the lake. Nothing provided me with a transcendental out-of-body experience, but that is all right. The fact that I took time out of my day to disconnect makes all the difference. People often try to find meaning in what they observe, and I may also do that. But it is also beneficial to embrace the outdoors, even without providing meaning. It serves as a vessel for something much larger than oneself. We can try to interpret things and form conclusions about what we see, but we will never truly understand nature.