There comes a time of year where the leaves begin to dance. Disconnected, one by one, the leaves start a slow and elegant descent towards the ground below. Some leaves fall to the forest floor, destined to become a pulpy concoction of nutrients soak into the earth. Some leaves descend onto the creek.
The creek flows at a relatively leisurely pace but still always flows nonetheless. The surface of the water adheres to the leaves while delicately floating. Here begins the dance.
The ripples swirl the leaves in their wake as the wind goads the water in any direction. Some leaves are pushed against one another, forming into a blockade, thus ending their dance. Some leaves continue to swirl about the still pools of water while others twirl in the vortex of the rushing inlets.
Panel 2
The scene is full of life.
Life views the dance from all perspectives, including those of travelers and residents of the stream. The water is teeming with minnows, bullfrogs, crayfish, water skippers, water spiders, and various birds. These life forms are all an integral part of the mini-ecosystem that is the creek. For many, the stream is their home, the creek is their passage of life.
Peering into the still pools, one can see a picture box display reflected off of the surface. A perspective of the stream, hidden at first glance, into a rather similar reality.
It displays a view of a world filled with an ancient life who have trekked the creek before. This ancient life has shared the same experience as the life today. After all, life began at water. Many of the same lives will end on the water.
Perhaps a source of water is what truly connects all the residents and travelers of the creek, big and small.
There is one unusual structure along the stream that old life did not perceive. It is of the earth, unwavering, and temporary. It is the work of man.
Panel 3
The flow is endless.
Allaying sounds resonate from the dual chambers under the bridge. The unrelenting flow of water continually collides with the poured concrete from many years ago. Water flows downhill and wants to move on its path, often creating a better version of the track
Alas, any object of natural or human-made creation is battered by the water, left in the wake of the never-ending power of erosion.
The bridge, consisting of concrete, rebar, and asphalt was created with the purpose of avoiding the flow of water. A creation owed to a millennia of human construction methods to be made unwavering and unmoving. But even with the knowledge of hundreds of years of generations of civil engineers before, the builders know the bridge will in time become nothing less than a pile of rubble while the water still flows on.
