Bryan Deel: Noland Trail Speculation

During our class on April 21st, I realized while walking along the Noland Trail that silence assisted me in experiencing my own “vision quest.” While walking I focused on a certain tree and noticed the patterns on the tree bark, and realized how complex the ridges and edges were on the outside of the tree. I began to reflect on how intricately everything in this world is made, whether it is the human body, animal, plants, or even tree bark. This idea suggests parallelism between my experience and the Plains Indian’s vision quest in that I observed the benevolence and mystery of God, similar to the Indian’s trust in the spirits of nature.