June 30, 2011
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Nature Walk part 1 and 2
I had to go out into nature as part of studying Emerson and transcendentalism for my American Lit. class that I took Junior year of hs. I’m cleaning out my computer at the moment, so that’s what my deal is. I’m gonna post the 2 walks. I have no idea why we did two, but after we wrote them we were supposed to write a narrative. My narrative was kind of crappy because I felt it was rushed (which it totally was!), so I kinda bs’ed it. Anyway, here are those 2 walks. I don’t know the exact dates. They were sometime in Nov. 2009.
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Walk 1
I decided to go to a forest across the street from my house. I chose it because I always used to play in the forest and the brook that flows through it. I would splash around with my friends and we’d try to explore and find where it ended. It isn’t the same way that it was back then. Sometimes it floods and this can cause a real problem for the town. Someone decided it was a good idea to think about cutting down all the trees in the forest and building a giant retention pond for the flood water. Hopefully it won’t happen since our town elected a 1st selectman who seems to be against it. When I walked through the path of the forest, I found myself remembering how much I enjoyed coming here as a kid. While my motives are different now, the feeling is still the same. As I walked through the path I saw squirrels chasing each other and heard birds chirping. I never realized that birds chirp all the time, I thought they only did in the morning. I love crisp clean air after it’s rained. It’s almost like nature has cleansed itself of all the pollution in the air. Coming to the forest was surprisingly calming and peaceful. It was nice to get away from the rush, rush, rush of normal life. Sadly, even in the forest there is a reminder of the way we live today. Someone has left four crumpled up beer cans lying on the forest floor. Some people have used these woods for all the wrong reasons. After seeing those cans, I couldn’t help but want to read poetry. It seems like the right thing to do in the forest besides just sitting and listening. It’s ironic that I felt that the forest is tranquil because there is an abundance of noise. There are so many squirrels! One, close by, is digging and probably looking for an acorn. Others are scuttling about, up and down trees. There’s also a constant dripping off the trees from the previous rain. Ugh. Unfortunately the forest is not the only source of sound…someone just honked their horn and every so often I can see cars passing through the trees. As I walk further into the forest, I can hear the slight crackle of the leaves. The forest floor is a similar shade of brown: light brown, dark brown, yellow brown and in between…Most of the trees are bare and it’s no secret where the leaves have gone. More birds are chirping, it’s as if they are always happy. If more people were happy and optimistic like birds and we’d probably have a better world. There’s so much going on, I can’t ever believe why anyone would think of nature as “boring”. I left the forest today with a slightly better understanding of what certain romantics felt. When I was leaving the forest I understood what Emerson meant when he said that we are not truly alone in nature. We may be alone in nature, but there are animals and things all around us, so we are not truly “alone”.
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Walk 2
I came into a different entrance of the forest. One I knew well from exploring in my childhood. As I began to walk down the path the various animals hurried away. The path was harder to remember since it was covered in leaves. There is still a lot of trash around but not as much as there was in the other area. Leaves rustled in the wind and if you listened closely you could hear a symphony of it. It was as if nature had a slight voice you had to know and listen for. I sat listening and looking around and saw a fallen tree close by. It’s another example of the way nature changes. The tree will be used by the earth and plants around it and become a part of nature even in death. There’s a brook just up ahead that has a sweet melody almost like bells. It’s nice to be back here, but I almost don’t know what to do with myself. There’s so much to see and so much to process about my surroundings. As I walk away from that first area I began to see what looked like makeshift shelters. One was almost like a cave with sticks creating a “roof”. Another shelter is a large circle of sticks, almost like a meeting area. I wonder if people have stayed in the forest or if it is little children playing in the forest. The weather is “nicer” today than it was yesterday. It’s sunnier and slightly warmer. It’s just as calming as it was but I liked the danker weather better. Somehow it is more meditative and thought provoking. I am grateful that I have been able to come here today. It’s funny that on Thanksgiving Day people are eating with their families, but I’m sure hardly anyone has taken today as a meditative day on which we count our blessings so that we know we are truly privileged. As I got up and walked around more I saw a tree with holes from a woodpecker. I always loved to hear the typical pecking sound from them. To me, it’s always been a reminder of the cycle of nature. Trees rot out and that is just the start of something new for the still living trees and animals around it. It’s kind of like life. When one opportunity “rots”, then another comes around. There’s something peaceful and quiet about the forest that I’ve always appreciated. Sometimes we drown out the silence that is really important to listen to and I think that if more people realized that we wouldn’t have so many people all over that drowned out the world with music they don’t even pay attention to.
