Friday, September 24, 2010

How much virtue there is in simply seeing.

Yesterday morning I left my dorm 10 minutes early so I could walk slower. Not for any particular reason other than I was sick of showing up to class out of breath and barely on time. Just those few minutes makes such a difference in the amount of people I encountered. The sidewalks were nearly empty and the atmosphere was cool and relaxed, unlike the usual bustle of morning traffic. As I ambled along, a bird swooped above me, and though it was probably just a pigeon, I stopped to watch it with the off chance that it MIGHT be something a little more interesting. As a gust of wind caught the large bird, the sun shone on the distinctive rusty colored feathers of a red tailed hawk. As raptors are my number one interest in the animal kingdom, I was literally thrilled to bear witness to such an occurrence. The hawk soared on the curves of the wind and eventually landed on Sprau Tower; I was late to class. It was such a seemingly insignificant and small event, but I thought about it all day.





John Burroughs wrote, "There is nothing in which people differ more than in their powers of observation." In the spirit of that idea, this blog is an attempt to relay the way I see nature. In a way, it's also a reminder for me to take a closer look at what I'm doing, where I am, and what's around me. Because generally, as Burroughs said, "you must have the bird in your heart before you can find it in the bush."


1 comment:

  1. This is a beautiful example of what we see when we slow down, and focus more on the now. This sounds like it was a wonderful experience. Keep your eyes open, this kind of thing is going on all the time :)

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