Nature is everywhere.
It’s in your backyard and front yard.
It’s the common cardinals and bluejays and wrens that are ubiquitous in every suburban landscape, the species that most people ignore or turn a blind eye to.
It’s in the cracks between the sidewalk, where only the toughest weeds manage to thrive and where ants pass by, one by one, as they search for food to take back to their nests.
It’s in the tangled mass of sargassum that washes in with the tides on the Gulf Coast.
The liminal spaces of our daily lives are filled with nature. The spaces between designated park to designated park aren’t vacuums where nature doesn’t exist.
It’s there if you know where and how to look.
My brain is full of drafts to write and because it is so full, I am defaulting to what I do when this happens, which is to spiral and do nothing (or write short, pithy essays). The right answer, of course, is to be outside, to read, to let my brain rest. I want to tell you about the things I’m finding out about eminent domain and how it ties into our parks development in Texas and nationwide; I want to write about the summer tomato harvest because this has been the best tomato harvest I’ve had in a few years; I have a book proposal to modify and work to do on another book I’m drafting and am behind on; and my blog beckons me to give it some attention and write about recent trips and tidbits to document there. In between all of that, there’s life and work and exhaustion.
This weekend find some time to put down your phone, step outside, and notice. You don’t need to document it, so keep the phone inside. Sit, watch, sweat a little (high probability right now no matter what time of day you venture outside), and soak it all in. Notice the birds, the colors of the plants, how the sky changes from minute to minute. Nature is right here and right now, no car or plane trip needed to get to some exotic destination.
Back soon when my brain can process all the words rumbling around in there.
Hope you can get some rest and spend some time outside this weekend ...
I thank God for the quiet everyday. Thanks for the lovely words!