On the Brandywine, by Lauren McElroy

I take some time to take a hike on a trail in Brandywine Creek State Park. As I begin on the trail, it starts out mostly uphill. There are many rocks on and along the sides of the trail, making sure that I always am paying attention to where I step. Those rocks vary in sizes from some very small that can fit into the palm of my hand to huge boulders that sit alongside of the trail that seem unreal. The rocks I continuously step on or walk on top of on the trail have green moss them. Along with the rocks, there are many broken branches on and along the trail that have moss partially covering them. I am also surrounded many white oaks that tower over me as I walk along the trail. I look above me on the trail to see a bright blue cloudless sky. It’s in the late afternoon, the weather still remains to be abnormally warm for the season. I also see black turkey vultures flying high above me, looking for their prey.

My boots crunch below me as I step on some fallen leaves. Some leaves are orange, yellow, and brown. Some of the leaves I see on the ground vary in size. Some as small as the palm of my hand and large leaves as big as my face. I continue to look up and see that many of the trees still have many of their leaves and that they are still green. I assume it’s because of the strangely warm weather why the rest of the leaves haven’t begun changing colors yet.

As I am about half way through the trail, it levels out and then the trail begins to go downhill. I move more quickly as gravity moves me down the hill, but I continue to be careful with the multitude of rocks covering the trail. As I walk, I hear crickets chirping at me. They all seem to make their sounds in sync of each other because there are so many of them.

The way Kimmerer writes in her observations of nature, she personifies the creatures she writes about. She personifies animals giving them a different life.  In relation to the title of the book, she talks about sweet grass in relation to hair and connects it to braiding. The braiding resembling the love that you have for that person. “Kindness and something more flow between the braider and the braided, the two connected by the cord of the plait.” This shows how a mother might braid her daughter’s hair to show her love for her. Kimmerer then personifies the sweet grass to resembles to the hair of Mother Earth. Trying to show the reader that if you take care of the Earth, in return she will take care of you, like a mother.

As a writer, she also liked to connect to her own personal experiences in her life. “Farmers around us grew strawberries and frequently hired kids to pick for them. My siblings and I would ride our bikes a long way to Crandall’s farm to pick berries to earn spending money.” These experiences she writes about helps give readers a personal connection to the book. It gives the reader an understanding that she has experienced life in the same ways that we have connecting the readers more closely to her words.

This is an important idea of why we write these journals. Most people have a disconnect from nature. By going out to write these journals, we are reconnecting ourselves back to nature.

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