Since I'm teaching at a writing conference all week, I also attend workshops myself, and Saturday I began working in a friend's mixed media class. We're making oracle cards to guide our writing lives.

On Saturday, after Friday's heavy downpours, I saw the image of a woman sculpted in a sheet of bark on the grass by Cedar Creek. I took her picture. I didn't know, at that moment, what kind of tree sheds such lovely scraps of bark.

This morning, as I was walking, I had the impulse to collect some bark and bring it to the workshop. Easily, I found the tree near Cedar Creek and scooped up lots of scraps. Nearing campus, along the main street in front of the college, I noticed more bark littering the ground. Here, the trees were labeled by the college, and so I learned my oracle springs from the bark of the American Sycamore. 

All photos and text by Kelly DuMar 2017, unless otherwise attributed