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Eye On Nature: Natural phenomenons of the transition of seasons
In February, the cosmos and the cosmological intertwine as the sign of Aquarius and the force of winter unite.
And while the month dawns bright, we are never far from the awesome power and incomparable beauty of water.
In all its forms--a tear-shaped drop, a drenching rain, a fog-enshrouded moon, a crystalline flake, a torrent breaking its banks--water shapes and defines our landscape and this season. For every biome, on every continent on this blue planet, water is the prime mover and shaper. In the Pacific Northwest we expect our strongest rains to come in winter, but this, of course, is simply a feature of our latitude and proximity to ocean. In other regions, it is summer skies that open up, and this year, the symmetry of winter rain and summer monsoon is reinforced as we watch the news of an Australian flood and Sandy River breech.
Like so many dualities in life, water's capacity to destroy is matched by its power to sustain and nourish. The action of water on our campus ecosystem may be less dramatic than a cyclone or winter ice storm, but you can be sure that the banks of Beaver Creek are being altered by this season's rains. The stream that will reveal itself in Spring will not be the same as the one that flowed in Fall--new channels will be carved, debris taken away, rocks moved and added, new opportunities created.
In Hinduism, the god Shiva is known both as the Destroyer and the Auspicious One, an explicit acknowledgement of the need to dismantle in order to build, to remove in order to create. During this season of watery destruction, we can know that a promise for the future flows as well. That water, in all its glorious forms, brings with its beauty a link to the future that waits for all of us.
With an eye on nature,
Wally Shriner
Wally Shriner is an MHCC biology instructor and the Natural Resources Technology program faculty advisor.
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