March 21st 2010

You left your house in the midst of a prairie winter
to see if you could hack it in the heat of a far-off jungle
and returned to an early melt.

The basement walls had become a sieve, they were
running like a waterfall
and you had one instinct, only:
staunch the flow,
stop the water before it ate the concrete,
destroyed the foundation,
caved in the supports and tumbled your house into a heap:
you wanted to save your house
you wanted to stop this collapse

But here is another way of looking at it:

You could have stepped back
let the earth move
let the water come in

Wrapping the walls in plastic is only a bandaid solution
a temporary measure
you cannot stop time
with a sump pump
you cannot prevent the inevitable
which is the rising up of nature
the invasion of melted snow
the earth taking back what it rightfully wants

Step aside
and let nature take its course
stop imposing your vision
onto a structure
that is more than its crumbling basement cement
So
let the walls come down and see
what grows up
in their place