“This was once Mazama, I kept
reminding myself. This was once a
mountain that stood nearly 12,000
feet tall and then had its heart
removed. This was once a wasteland
of lava and pumice and ash. This was
once an empty bowl that took
hundreds of years to fill. But hard as
I tried, I couldn't see them in my
mind's eye. Not the mountain or the
wasteland or the empty bowl. They
simply were not there anymore.
There was only the stillness and the
silence of that water: what a
mountain and a wasteland and an
empty bowl turned into after the
healing process.”
Cheryl Strayed