Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o’er-sways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
O, how shall summer’s honey breath hold out
Against the wreckful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?
O fearful meditation! where, alack,
Shall Time’s best jewel from Time’s chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
    O, none, unless this miracle have might,
    That in black ink my love may still shine bright.

Sonnet 65 –William Shakespeare

These photos were taken along the bank of Kraklauer Creek at summers peak.  The creek flows under Rt 45 through a steel culvert.  The Park District has faced the creek bed and banks with quarried stone from Wisconsin.  A  variety of native perennial wild flowers are planted between the hewn stone blocks and upward along the steep earthen bank.  The creek, under the mindful supervision of the men and women of the Mundelein Park District lives in a state of sustainability with Natures gift of life.  It is a spot of uncommon beauty and delight for bees, dragon flies, finches, sparrows and the families of Mundelein.

A visit there with my camera is a respite from the political conflict that rages, and the deconstruction of institutions, like a wreckful siege continues unabated around us.  I am reminded that Nature is the mother of us all, that the cycle of life and death is “natural”, that change does not mean oblivion.  The new always supersedes the moribund and dying.  Love shines bright.

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