Why am I pulling into the same parking area of the same woods at the same time of day to walk the same trail and see the same things?
A dismal question on a dismal day. I shrug it off and go for a walk. It’s what I do. If I didn’t, I’d be somebody else.
I see a sparrow and figure it’s not worth a second look. But I glass it anyway. And, hey, there’s some unexpected white and yellow. It’s a White-throated Sparrow. Nothing rare, but not a backyard bird.
Moving on, I notice there’s some new coyote scat on the trail.
Scat’s an educated word. A coyote researcher I knew talked about it a lot. He had the improbable name, “Wiley.” As in “Wile E. Coyote” from the Roadrunner cartoons.
I’m smiling about this name as I move on. And the thought hits: You never walk in the same woods twice.
This is a spin-off of the famous line, “You can’t step into the same river twice,” by the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus.
I’m no scholar, but I do like Heraclitus. He was bummed out about the unstoppable passage of time. Some people call him the “weeping philosopher.”
As I walk, I’m thinking about how the “same river twice” idea extends to the “same woods twice” insight that I just stumbled upon while circling coyote shit.
I soon get interested in a Red-tailed Hawk above me, and have the thought that he’s probably the same hawk I see every time I’m here. It’s his territory.
Maybe he sees me, and thinks: “There’s that guy again, it’s his territory.” I smile. Better believe it pal, this is my territory. Never had that thought before. Something new in the woods.
I see a couple of crows. They’re smart, and I wondered if they were also watching me like a hawk. Maybe today’s bird-watching excursion was a two-way street.
Maybe it always is. Maybe the White-throated Sparrow was looking at this scruffy, army-jacket bum out of the corner of his eye, thinking, “Him again.”
Anyway, I’m having an okay time. It’s not dismal on the trail. The air’s bracing. The exercise is working out the kinks. The woods are sort of the same, and sort of different. As always.
Why even step in the same river once?
You can’t step into the same river twice – Truer words were never spoken.
And, after 20 years of environmental monitoring of surface waters, I would like to offer a corollary; an old African proverb: Never test the depth of a river with both feet.