Don’t Blink!
If you blink you could miss a moment! That is not to say your eyes must stay open every one of the 86,400 seconds of every day, or 604,800 seconds every week, or 31,536,000 seconds of every year … .
I know the time I have spent with my eyes wide open has been a fraction of the more than two BILLION seconds of my lifetime so far (go ahead, do the math). There is so much going on right here, right now and every other place on this planet. It is not possible to be aware of all of it. I will resist the temptation to say, “Look up from that screen you are fixated on.” After all, what am I doing myself right now but exactly that?
A Reminder and an Invitation
My reminder to myself, and my invitation to anyone reading this, is to remember. Screen time may be unavoidable as an essential part of my life, and yours. At the same time, remember, there is more to life than selfies and youtube videos. Get outside, smell the flowers or the wet duff of a forest floor or the desert after a rain. Taste blackberries ripened in the sun, a fresh picked snap pea or parsley leaf. Watch the play of light as it moves through the day. Notice how it paints fresh pictures any moment you choose to look.
And don’t rely on daylight only. Even in these, for us Northern Hemisphere folks right now and you in the Southern Hemisphere when your turn comes, long summer days, the night time is lovely. Feel the sun warmed air on your skin at the end of the heating cycle. Bundle up to catch a glimpse of sparkle and gleam in deep dark long-night skies, the colors a full moon makes on snow crystals or through the bare branches of a tree or the prickly halo of a cactus tree. Listen for the hoot of an owl, the rustle of breezes as air cools.
Can you imagine any of these images? smells? Tastes?
Memory Links to Imagination
Chances are better you can get a visceral memory if you have had an experience of the real thing, 360 degrees around, above and below your nerve endings.
In my most recent blog, The Real Reality Show, I pondered the imperative of experience as porthole to the planetary extravaganza of earthly delights.
With this post I implore you: First, thanks for reading. Second, look up; put down whatever device you are using to read these words. Then go outside, wherever you are right now, take a look around, a deep breath, smell, touch something. If you find anything edible, nibble it, close your eyes and listen.
Spark a Memory
Then come back to this device and jot a phrase or two in the comments about what you saw, heard, smelled, felt, tasted. At least one thing, but three may make a greater difference for you. Prof. Miles Richardson has “found writing down three good things in nature each day for a week led to sustained increases in nature connection – and that increase was linked with improvements in psychological health.”
Maybe someone else reading this will have a memory sparked by your sharing. Then we can be like the first drops of rain landing on the ground, before the whole of it is wetted and the water dimpled with a showering of shared sensory descriptions.
Are you in?
I went outside once already this morning before coming back inside to start kitchen chores. Then I noticed the light slanting through the cedars next door and returned to the garden to sniff and pluck for breakfast. I took a little time for thyme. As soon as this is posted, I’ll be out there again .
Join me, won’t you?
Nice, Lora. Happy to see notification of new posts from you!
Thanks, Lisa, I was also glad to see the notification show up for me so I can see what subscribers are receiving. Did this one in any way encourage you to take a break from screen time?
Yes. And I need the reminder as I spend most of my time in front of a screen!
And I am happy to have had your help, Lisa, in setting up these notifications and re-booting my blogging energy. I am enjoying the interplay of getting outside, getting inspired to blog on something and then getting comments affirming for me that someone is reading my posts!
Hi friend,
I was out earlier today picking blueberries and raspberries from the yard. Of course, I had to have a munch right then and there:) I have previously picked several batches and have a few in the freezer for later use. The sugar snap peas are the best right off the vine too:)
Keep writing…
Yes, we have had our first blueberries ripening and are still enjoying the snap peas. They are slowing down but still producing.As I read your “munch” I get the flavor in my mouth. The imagination is powerful when fed direct experiences to bolster it.
Barb, Alas, just as I think we will have some raspberries, the next day I discover the new that were nearly ripe the day before are gone. At least someone (my guess is the crows) is enjoying them! Thanks for the encouragement to keep writing. Glad to have you as a reader.
I did as requested, and what a great thing! It’s August in Ohio, it’s dry, the grass is going dormant. I heard the locusts in the big trees behind our house. Then the all the birds and the squirrels. I saw a huge nest high in a tree that the squirrels call home. The locusts reminded me of all the times as a child with my bedroom windows open, listening to them and allowing them lull me to sleep. There’s a nice cool breeze this morning. Everything is awake and moving.
Janice, what a stirring description of your experience of being present. I am glad my post inspired you and Thank You for posting a response.
I believe our senses were open as children to so much more we have forgotten. I am so glad this brought up such a delightful childhood memory.
Thank you for this, Lora! I’m catching up on emails after spending a week by the ocean savoring the expansive energy there. The ocean has always been my happy place. I feel it with all my senses, breathing the fresh salt-air as I walk barefoot on the sand, listening with all of me.
After I read your words, I looked out the window where the branches of the Golden Chain and spruce trees are dancing in the wind. And, rather than just watch, I decided to go out to dance with her too. Feeling the graceful touch of wind on my skin, closing my eyes to hear the movement of branches and chimes, leaning against the trunk of one large spruce while giving thanks for all the majesty.
Adoring it all.
Love that this message moved you to dance with the wind and the tree, Sora! Loving the planet has everything to do with how we can turn around climate catastrophe as put so eloquently by Eliane Brum in a recent opinion piece in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/23/amazon-rainforest-fires-deforestation-jair-bolsonaro
Your own page has so many wonderful examples of connecting with nature. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Journey2Simple/