Unchanging Change (NJ14)


Many aspects in our surroundings, particularly in nature, go unchanged unless we monitor details closely.  For instance, the large trees on campus had to have grown to get to the height they are now, and it makes sense that they are continually growing, but I have never noticed them sprout up.  Grass lines the sidewalks we use every day and has a more extreme growth pattern than trees.  Over the course of the week, I surely notice the grass is longer, but I have never sat down and noticed the length of grass change before my eyes.  I simply get sensitized each time I walk past.  It is not just plants that this phenomenon occurs.  A puppy does not stay a puppy forever, but when I see the puppy frequently, I have never noticed or “seen” the puppy grow.  It is a strange concept that so much around us is always changing, but in small enough ways that we may not notice from day to day.
During the writing of the previous paragraph, I have watched something in nature change drastically several times so that anyone could notice (although most do not).  As I started to write, only one wispy, translucent cloud spanned thinly across the right side of the sky.  Before long, I noticed another row of clouds forming.  It looked as if someone had taken a white pencil and scribbled straight, vertical lines across the top of a sheet of paper.  These two cloud formations slowly dissipated and another development, closer than before, appeared in front of the sun.  Although still thin and semitransparent, these had more body and could soften the suns intense beams.  They continued to fill the sky in the few minutes I watched.  Hard to believe that the sky, arguably the largest and most mysterious aspect nature we see, changes quickly and drastically enough to entertain anyone who is willing to notice.

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