Enjoy!
Liberty Trail
(The path beside Euclid Creek, off of Liberty Road South Euclid, OH)
The creek bubbles and spits as it swishes over the shale stones. It sinks under man-made bridges, past houses of all shape and sizes, and hides between patches of tall trees. The leaves fall into the burbling water, running away from their duties as curtains from the outside world. Come, follow me to a magical place full of mystery. Sneak behind the suburbanized streets and into a land still untouched by man. The trees whisper secrets as they sway their branches back and forth, making the sunlight dance along the shale. In one direction, all becomes nature. In another, houses and domestic life peek between thick trunks. Ducks, deer, squirrels, and chipmunks dash in and out of sight, slipping gracefully away from the dangers of humanity. Invisible birds chirp from high in the canopy, lending their voices to drown out that of hissing tires and the laughter of small children, just now on their way home from school.
One ford crashes together just barely out of the reach of civilization. Heavy rainfall pushes the rocks, transforming the creek’s personality. Sometimes crossing the ford can be an easy bridge over piles of shale and soil. Other times, only stray rocks from distant lands help the weary traveler across. Humanity pours opaque substances down into the clear water occasionally. The change forces away the innocent creatures until the weak current can pull the harmful chemicals out of sight. Until then, the creek acquires an even stranger appearance. Yet even as much as humans appear and fill the stream with plastic and trash, it pushes on. Euclid Creek has seen the time before man, and if for a moment silence could reign, all could hear its secrets.
