The Quiet Before The Storm

It's a relatively easy night at Palmer Park. 72 degrees and falling. The birds have changed tunes and are singing a song so sultry that it fades into the dimming sky, hoping to convince you that summer isn't really here.

Amid a pandemic where the number of coronavirus cases is on the rise, and violent outbreaks swell beyond proportions, there is beauty in the still quietness of the dusk.

Palmer Park is a 296-acre public park next to Detroit, Michigan's Palmer Park Apartment Building Historic District. It is named for U.S. Senator Thomas Witherell Palmer. He initially created the park when he donated 140-acre for a city park in 1893 on the condition that the virgin forest be preserved.

Above, you see, parts of the virgin forest are preserved--see it sitting there looking up the pink sky. It's asking, "Is this the calm before the storm?"

The storm, you ask? Is there a storm in the forecast? Hadn't you heard?

The storm may be apparent at first glance. See the freshly cut grass? It tells that there has been some care and custody for the necessary maintenance required for park life. Place for children to play touch football (the social distanced version of course); a place for yoga mats for the various outdoor classes offered there; a place of respite for the tons of walkers, joggers, bikers, and runners that converge upon the park daily.

It also reminds me of the people wearing masks and taking daily precautions to slow the spread of the virus.

Look a little farther, and you will see grass, smaller and larger trees, preserved as the entrance to free growth and less restraint. This is like the businesses and people who don't really believe that all of these precautions are necessary. That if people build their immune systems that everybody will be ok.

You cannot see what you can feel in this picture, the sky is telling that something is coming. Dressed in a pink hue, the sky is saying get ready. There is an undercurrent, looming in the bushes, and sometimes right in our face, the compression of a frustrated people prepared to erupt.

The 45th president of the United States has vowed to send troops to Detroit to 'quell the violence.

Over the next three weeks, the Justice Department plans to expand the operation into Detroit after sending troops into other major cities.

Unrest is also natural when there has been modification and exploitation of pure democracy, and many would argue that this president is, in part, the cause of this unrest.

I thought that I would take a picture of this park's natural beauty that was bequeathed to the City on the condition that its virgin, pure nature, would remain intact.

Now imagine the wind blowing. It may toss loose grass clippings around, giving them a new home as food for animals that come through the area.

That same wind will likely not move the shrubs, small and large trees that you see, almost as a backdrop daring the wind, or anything as powerful, to challenge their standing. They have been here for the long haul and are assigned to protect and preserve the very endowment that willed them into being.

The sky here is usually a radiant orange at dusk. It is often a fitting place for reflection of the events of a well-spent day. It's the Sun's way of saying to you," yeah, we did that!"

This day is very different. Whatever we did, the Sun seems to be sending a signal that the Universe, the Creator, that somebody is not happy with what we've done. Somebody is not pleased with what we're doing, and as a result, these quiet moments are not about tranquility. These moments are sounding an alarm to get ready for something to come.

Well, take it all in. I have a feeling that this may be the last view of the quiet before the storm.

Ask that sky--something is coming...