Power and Affect

As I walk, I look at the footprints I leave in the sand, the twigs I break as I step, and the dying leaves I pluck from fallen branches. Leaving our mark is something that is inevitable when we enter nature, or anywhere for that matter. In a crowd of people, we leave our memory: something we said, did, or perhaps the memory of what we were wearing. In nature, however, we leave our mark by interrupting the process that takes place when we are not looking: an indent in the sand, the shattering of crispy leaves, or the removal of natural objects from their place of origin. Thoreau notes in Nature, "When I return to my house I find that visitors have been there and left their cards, either a bunch of flowers, or a wreath of evergreen, or a name in pencil on a yellow walnut leaf or chip. They who come rarely to the woods take some little piece of the forest into their hands to play with by the way, which they leave, either intentionally or accidentally. One has peeled a willow wand, woven it into a ring, and dropped it on my table" (123). It happens. We touch things, we take things, we look at things, we take it all in and call it the experience of nature. Tiny mementos that we bring back to the civilized world to remind of the wilderness that lies beyond the outskirts of our city or town.
While we have this power over nature, the most powerful affect is that nature has over us. Nature might not pay attention to a broken twig or a footprint in the sand, but we sure notice what it drops off at our doorstep. "Some of my pleasantest hours were during the long rain storms in the spring or fall... In one heavy thunder shower the lightning struck a large pitch-pine across the pond, making a very conspicuous and perfectly regular spiral groove from top to bottom, and inch or more deep.... I passed it again the other day, and was struck with awe on looking up and beholding that mark, now more distinct than ever, where a terrific and resistless holt came down out of the harmless sky eight years ago"(125-126). It is this splendor that we see and take as in impact on our lives. We are so in awe of the power that nature has to affect itself because we know that if lightning can strike a tree, then it can strike us.
It is when we witness what nature can do to itself, that it makes a greater impact on us.  Although we have the power to disintegrate a mountain in moments, it is when a heavy rain takes away that same mountain with it's power that we see how strong nature is. There is such a difference when we examine the affect that we have on nature and when nature takes its toll upon itself. It makes us feel small and vulnerable even though we are capable of the same things.

On another note: This is beautiful
http://www.goodmorningandgoodnight.com/?p=4305