More road work in our area. This is the path I travel to get to our daughter’s home. The road is being enlarged from 2 to 4+ lanes (turning lanes in some spots.)
Someone has to have a clear vision to change the road’s path and its surroundings so much. It is incredible to me how the landscape is altered when roadwork is done.
There is a lot of UNdoing before any doing is accomplished.
- trees are cut
- ditches are filled
- driveway entrances are demolished
- fences are moved
- electric lines are rerouted
- dirt is brought in
- rocks are taken out
- bridges are replaced
And so many orange and white striped barrels line the way.
Have you ever eaten cookies like these?
Today I passed an area along the side of the road where blasting had lifted the ground and left a surface similar in appearance to these cookies. Cracked and separated by a powerful force beneath the surface:
Lots of trees have been cut down. On many that remain, branches have been trimmed, leaving only light colored circles against the gray brown bark of the trunk.
Were those missing limbs lush and full? Were the branches long, reaching towards the sky? I can’t remember what those trees looked like before.
Is that how it will be when this roadwork is finished? Will anyone remember how this place looked before?
Or will we be traveling so fast along the new road that we won’t take time to even consider the past?
Hindsight, they say, is 20/20 – but does this vision allow for that?
fireflytrails 
Sometime progress changes our world so much that it’s difficult to remember how it was before. I am sure the road will help with traffice but it is hard to imagine a part of nature that will be gone. Your post made me think today. Thank you.
There is a lot of truth in this line: “There is a lot of UNdoing before any doing is accomplished.” This line made me think about all of the time we spend in most accomplishment UNdoing– mindsets, damage, baggage, or misconceptions. I loved this post for its surface meaning, a mindful reflection on a changing landscape, but the deeper meaning is applicable to so much more. Great writing and thinking here.