James Joseph: Truth Hidden in Trails

The Noland trail is not quite the place we would want to have a picnic at, but it is beautiful and deep in it's own right. Having walked the paths, observed the animals, felt the trees, and pondered about life while looking over the pond, I feel like there's alot more to a trail or path than what we first take in. For example, looking at how a crane will flutter across the tranquil waters, only to take land on a log that a group of turtles happen to be take residence on. This seems to us as what most would call "Nature being nature" and we usually reside ourselves to that and don't look any deeper. But on the odd chance that we begin to take notice, and begin to wonder why animals do certain things, the truth becomes known to us. So looking at the example of a crane flying to a log that has turtles on it could be taken many different ways. Could it be that the turtles are prey to the crane, which is unlikely but not out of the question. Or is it possible that the crane and turtles work together on that log, to help catch prey for each other? Taking a different angle, it could also be a scene of turtle-crane romance (har har). But in all seriousness, trails and what you find on them can be alot more than what we first take it as. And as we compare nature trails to life, we realize that life is very similar, and things could be very different from what one first presumes. In relative terms, a book is just a book until it is opened and the pages are read and understood, then it becomes a story.