Beauty and Destruction in the Blink of an eye

I wrote this back in 1986 when I was stationed in Tacoma, Washington and took a group tour to Mount St. Helen

Beauty and Destruction in the Blink of an Eye

 

 

As the bus started climbing the steep road, I wondered what I would see. Tall, lush green trees hugged both sides of the road as the bus navigated the twisting, turning road.  One would not know a volcano had erupted here a few years back.  But, suddenly, we went from lush, green forest to bleak, brown, desert.  The evidence of the volcano's power was before us now. 

 

Trees were toppled voer like toothpicks all laying in the same direction.  The cloud plume had flattened everything for miles and miles.  We drove past the skeleton of a rusted out car with all its window gone.  I hoped that no one had been in that car when the volcano released her fury.  We stopped at a lookout where we could look down and see where a once beautiful lake was filled with dirt and debris changing its formation.  I remembered hearing on the news that an old man lived in a cabin by that lake and refused to leave.  I prayed that he perished quickly and did not suffer.

 

We drove to the area where we could look at the crater that was created when she blew her top.  Hard to imagine she stood so much taller before than now.  I climbed up a large mound to get a better downward look into her crater.  As I climbed I wondered if this was made by the mountain or by man as there were wood planks pushed into the dirt to form steps.  As far as the eye could see, destruction surrounded us.  The one thing I could not get out of  my mind were the flattened trees.  There was no chaotic jumble of trees piled on top of each other.  All the trees, stripped of their outer bark and leaves, were laying on their side, facing the same direction. They looked like toothpicks lying side by side ready to be boxed up.

 

On the bus ride back home, I contemplated all that I had seen and felt.  Nature caould be so destructive even to itself.  I imagined it would take decades for that area to heal and new life to grow and flourish.  I will have to plan to come back for a visit and see how she has healed.