Nature Observation
There was a noticeable shift in the weather at the start of the week. I wrote about it here. The cooler nights, combined with cool breezes during the day were the first signs of fall.
Things warmed back up, though, like I expected they would.
Seasonal shifts always seem to come in spurts — a little change and then a regression, then a little more change and some more regression, until eventually, the new season takes hold and the rest of the natural world falls in line.
We still have more summer days before the weather change takes hold though, and I've been enjoying them.
Something that really hit me while writing that post about the coming fall was my dis-integrating relationship with the natural world, since coming to live in Asheville.
As I said in my post, this city does a better job than most at integrating natural spaces into the city environment, however, there are so many human-made distractions here to pull one's attention away from nature.
It's been bugging me for a while now that I've lost that daily connection.
In some ways, I know the natural world here, better than I did in Colorado, as I've learned a lot of plant, tree and mushroom identification, and how to either eat, avoid, or make teas or medicine with those natural ingredients.
But I was much more connected to the natural pace of the world back then.
I noticed the phases of the moon, and the brightness of stars, without all the light pollution.
When the moon was full, it would cause the trees to make shadows on the earth — especially when the landscape was covered with snow.
When the moon was in its new moon stage, the stars in the sky stood out with a brightness I had never seen before living up there. There was no additional light present to outshine them.
My little Colorado cabin
I knew the location and seasonal positioning of the sun throughout the day — mainly because I was so cold most of the time that I needed to know where to find it. In the winter time, by 2pm my house had lost all direct sunlight, and in order to experience the sun, I had to climb up the south facing slope to meet it.
All shifts in weather stood out. Like I said, mainly because I was so cold most of the time, but I needed to know whether it was safe to drive, or whether I needed more wood to heat my home, or whether I needed to watch out for forest fires.
I felt more alive up there than I ever have, living in a world where those things are either drowned out, or they simply just don't seem to matter to anyone.
I'm in a temporary time in my life where I simply just need to live in the city, but rather than sulking over this reality, I decided to start very consciously observing nature, like I used to very naturally do, while living up in my Colorado mountain cabin.
Last night I got out an old nature observation journal that I actually started when I lived in Colorado. I dropped the ball with it many times over, but it was really fun for me to read back through it and see what I observed in my surroundings at the time.
I started the journaling process back up this morning, and it was such an enjoyable experience.
I opened up my ears, to hear what I could hear beyond the sound of the traffic and the sirens, the airplanes flying over head, the neighbor's dogs and the a-hole down the street who loves to repeatedly rev his car engine up over and over and over again until it sounds like it's going to explode.
Beyond all of that I could actually hear quite a bit. I heard crickets and cicadas and many different bird calls.
I also sensed the quality of the sun, and noticed its position, because it's changed significantly. It's lower in the sky than it was, so it's casting longer shadows across my deck.
I also took note of all of the animals I've seen come through the yard, because there are a ton of them here.
Although I was in a forest in Colorado and I'm in a city here, I see way more wildlife here than I ever saw up there. I think it's simply because the animals don't have a whole lot of free space to roam here and they're forced to integrate.
The bears also just really enjoy the trash and the bird feeders.
There's a lot here to notice and appreciate when I intentionally open my senses up to appreciate it. And I plan on continuing this practice on my journey toward re-integrating myself into the natural world.
Hi, I’m Kristen!
I envision a world where you and I rediscover what it is to be human, through connection with ourselves, each other and the natural world around us.