The field trip to Circle B Bar Reserve was both edifying and refreshing. I enjoyed being outside in the cool, overcast weather very much. I loved seeing and identifying the birds that roam around my own pasture, and learning about some species I wasn't familiar with. Learning about non-native plant species was also interesting, and made me think about the different kinds of grass I've seen in Hardee County that I had no idea were invasive. It's something I would like to research more.
My favorite part of the trip was when Professor Corrigan told us to observe nature while paying attention to all of our senses. I focused mostly on, "What do I hear?" Often I think of the outdoors as being very quiet, or even silent, but as I sat conciously listening, I noticed that there were many sounds. The blowing through the plants and trees was the first one I noticed. Then I heard several different bird calls. They blended together in a sort of lull. It reminded me of a piece by Debussy called The Little Shepherd for several reasons. I tried to focus for a little while on what I saw. I found this to be a little more difficult. I remembered what one of the hosts said about seeing color in the forest. She said she didn't only see green, but she saw blue-green, yellow-green, purple-green, and so on. (It reminded me of the art of "looking" before sketching or painting, and trying hard to know a subject very well before reproducing it.) The leaves on this tree were longer, thin, and a sort of yellow-green. I also saw beautiful purple flowers in the water. I made eye contact with a coot for a while. I saw tiny true-blue flowers smiling up from the clover and grass. (Almost every time I see a wild blue flower, I think of when a lady in a flower shop tried to convince me that blue flowers don't exist. Of course they do. Violets are blue -- doesn't everybody know that?) I felt cold and a little uncomfortable in the weather while I was sitting still. I tried to discern smells, but I don't have a very strong sense of smell. I mostly smelled my own perfume, and started to wish I hadn't worn it. The cool, fresh air felt nice to breath, though.
It was fun pulling the invasive species of grass from the ground. It reminds me of the kind of work I did in my previous church with Mr. Johnson, and working in my grandparent's blueberry patch. It wasn't foreign to me.
Throughout the trip, I kept in mind Professor Corrigan's Notes on Nature and Poetry as Spiritual Practices. I thorougly enjoyed this short reading, and it made me smile to notice that the Holy Spirit has shown me some of these concepts already. Some things I was reminded of was the art of "learning to calm down, and actually calm down," and "learning to slow down, and actually slow down." I actually noticed that during the evening while I was at home, I burned a candle and methodically worked through my music theory homework, a nice contrast from my usual "harried homework state". I wondered if it had anything to do with conciously calming down earlier in the day.
I did not enjoy the rereading of the poem so much yesterday. In fact, I felt a bit uneasy as we listened. I hope to explain this more fully in a following post. However, I found the act of reading outside to be very thought-provoking, and, I think, could be very rewarding. Lately I've been thinking of sitting outside the cafe on campus as "reading outside", but I'd like to find some more "woodsy" places to sit and read -- perhaps at my own pasture. I had never thought of it before.
Overall, the trip was exciting and motivating, and I look foward to studying some different kinds of nature poetry in class.
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