When the Earth Sighs
Deep under the crust the planet moves in slow ways we can barely imagine layers of rock press and shift magma stirs in heavy circles gases gather in hidden chambers, sealed for ages until the moment comes when pressure breaks free and the Earth exhales, what we see as a volcano is really that sigh made visible.
It is strange to think that what looks like chaos is really balance energy built up inside the planet must find a way out the molten rock that spills across the land is not rage, but renewal it cools and hardens and turns into soil rich enough to feed life again, forests will grow where the fire once roared fields will rise from ashes and what burned becomes the base for what lives next.
Scientists spend their lives listening for these whispers the tiny tremors, the changes in the air the faint warmth that spreads through the ground.
they search for patterns but the Earth has none each volcano follows its own rhythm some sleep for centuries others wake without warning and remind us that the ground beneath us is never truly still.
When the eruption comes the world changes fast ash drifts into the sky and travels far beyond the horizon tiny minerals fall like dust onto distant lands, feeding soil that has waited quietly for years the air turns thick and the sun dims for a moment and then clears as if the planet has taken a deep breath and found calm again, mountains rise from places that were once flat valleys are reshaped and rivers carve new paths through rock that only yesterday was molten and wild.
Even in destruction there is beauty the Earth is never ending itself only changing, what seems like loss is really transformation when lava cools it builds land from nothing it lays the first stones of future life.
To stand near cooled lava is to feel that slow pulse under your feet the warmth may be gone but the life beneath still moves the Earth is breathing patient and deep waiting for the next time it needs to sigh and somehow knowing that makes the world feel more alive than ever before.
