“I love nature partly because she is not man, but a retreat from him. None of his institutions control or pervade her. There a different kind of right prevails. In her midst, I can be glad with an entire gladness. If this world was all man I could not stretch myself— I should lose all hope. He is constraint; she is freedom to me. He makes me wish for another world— she makes me content with this.”
- Henry David Thoreau
I’ve always been drawn to dilapidated structures. I think I used to fear that it was some weird thing, to be drawn to the decay. But I’ve come to realize that it isn’t the decay of the structure I’m drawn to, but rather the way that nature often shows her power in those spaces. As a friend once said to me. “I find nature reclaiming our constructions to be comforting and often, beautiful.” When the world is at its darkest I take solace in her gentle reminder of our impermanence.