A Walk To Visit A Creek
New Years day, the weather is pleasant. What better way to begin the year than by taking a walk. I decided to visit a creek that runs between two subdivisions, then flows under Midlothian Road, cutting it’s way behind the Park District water park.
The creek just over Midlothian Road is damed by a low concrete wall and spillway. It’s a hidden patch of wildness. Some years ago the land was a farm. Backhoes turned it into small lots with over-priced cracker-box houses. Just enough woods surround the creek to obscure view of the nearby homes
I decided to jog over, out of concern for my lack of physical fitness. I ran for a while and then slowed to a walk, winded. I noticed a patch of bright red a few feet beyond the culvert 
in a yard. I walked over and picked up the discarded cigarette box. The empty “crush proof” box had contained 20 L&M cigarettes. I am not a smoker. But I am familiar with the brand. My mother worked for the Liggett and Myers tobacco company for over 30 years. Those L&M cigarettes put groceries on the table, and payed our mortgage while I grew up. Holding the empty box I remembered my mothers kindly face. I recall the tall factory and the deafening roar of the high speed machines on the manufacturing floor. The past is never really over. I read somewhere that the past piles up around us like old issues of National Geographic.
Arriving at the creek, I stood on the dam for a few minutes listening. I felt inwardly nourished, addressed by the music, water cascading over the spillway. The flowing water was framed by melting ice. Also I saw sign of the nearby subdivisions. Out of the falling water at my feet emerged a dome of detergent foam, originating no doubt from the nearby neighborhoods.
Minutes passed, I looked into the shallow algae covered bottom of the pool behind the dam. I observed a scattering of tiny brown willow leaves 
laying on islands of petite green water plants. A solitary oak leaf was floating. Oak leaves are the last to fall. The oak is a hard wood tree, and the leaves take longer to decay than do the maples.
Making my way out of the tangle of grasses and under growth, back on the side walk I began the return jog home. In a minute or two 
approaching Mechanics Grove elementary school, I was captivated by the big sign facing the road. The sign emphasized the importance of kindness. If students here learn little more than the practice of kindness, this school will have fulfilled it’s mission. Society will be strengthen thereby. Jogging past I felt humanized, a bit more centered on account of the signs admonition.
A bit further on, before crossing Midlothian Road I approached the Fremont Township Public Library. A flock of Canada Geese were congregating around, and upon the retention pond. The birds impressed me as majestic, remarkably intelligent in order find what they need to survive in the un-wild of suburbia. I did not approach the geese. All living things deserve their own space.
Maybe that is what we Americans are getting at with all our talk about “freedom?” Or maybe not.
