* * *
The towering redwoods I see from my living room remind me
of an ancient age when dinosaurs roamed here. And hiding among the grasses are
subtle echoes of even earlier eras: spiders and snails, humble pioneers of
life’s experimentation with an existence on land. I recognize them now, as I do
myself, as separate strands of life, woven together by time into a tapestry of
nature that is connected in the present as well as linked to the past.
--Frans Lanting, from Life:
A Journey Through Time