Beckoning
Calling all freedom seekers. Nature's waiting for you.
Our Maker clearly made nature part of the master plan for human happiness. The bounty of our skies, lands, waterways, and air are innumerable. A recent estimate puts this bounty at 8.7 million species of plants and animals alone. Only about 1.2 million of them have been formally described and catalogued. This does not include the sounds and smells of the 8.7 million.
When I’m in nature, including my backyard biome, I instantly become present. All five senses engage in a symphony that looks, feels, tastes, smells, and sounds different than the previous engagement. When we stop and think about this, it means that in the average life span of a human (global 73 years, US 78 years) there are at least 12,168 unique symphonies awaiting your enjoyment - based on a conservative estimate of being outside around at least a tree and/or grass 3 times per week for 78 years.
This, my friends, is a veritable shit ton of free happiness. FREE HAPPINESS.
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Clearly some people are working multiple jobs to make ends meet. But even you could make one of your jobs outdoors. In addition, if there are children in your family they likely have between one and an infinite number of weekly activities. Most require you to be outside for some period of time commuting to said activities and/or having the activities themselves occur outdoors.
STOP
Stare at the sky, taste the breeze, inhale so deeply that it requires a 10-second effort to exhale all of that air from your lungs. Look at the ground. Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Ants, and other such movies are no joke. Inside the turf biome at our feet, there are entire miniature universes to enjoy. Here’s a challenge - catalogue ONLY the ants in your yard or a nearby park. Take a picture, start a journal, identify each one including what their habitat and nest look like. Spend the summer doing this and then count how many times a week you get bent out of shape about politics, or your spouse, or whatever.
The foibles, fears, and freak-outs of everyday life pale in comparison to the goings on within earth’s natural neighborhoods.
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Thus begins my multi-part series about the spiritual symphonies of nature. All photos and video in this series are from mine or my husband’s iPhones.
Today’s post is about a stretch of wetlands in Ohio through which the rails-to-trails invites visitors to stroll, lollygag, run, bike, scooter, and even travel by Amish buggy. It’s a natural hallway where the symphony is mostly insulated from human sounds allowing nature’s maestro to enthrall us and our own senses to narrate our experience.
My cover photo for this adventure was a natural hallway into which nature’s porch light shone as the afternoon progressed. I saw this phenomenon from a great distance away on the trail, during our walk back to our car. The waning sun hit the yonder tree canopy, which arches across the top of the trail like old ladies leaning in for some juicy gossip and when it struck, the distant opening lit up like a neon sign. Here are the before and after shots of this beautiful experience.
Our walk took place shortly after more than a week of rain, which had filled up the wetlands to a level I hadn’t previously seen. The water levels on both sides of the trail were within a few feet of it when normally the level sits ten or more feet below the trail.
I was fascinated by this brand new access to water dwellers, like muskrats. One had taken a break from the endless water to munch on vegetation at the edge of the path, entirely undeterred by our presence. I snapped photos and a video, below, and later captured another smaller muskrat, who appeared discouraged by just how deep the water was on his lodge, possibly accepting that it might be challenging exiting the water should he attempt a swim to shore.
Just beyond the muskrat shenanigans, we saw a whirlpool to the right of the trail which must have originated at one of the drainage pipes placed at intervals throughout the wetlands, to maintain balance in the water level. On this day, the pipe was so far below the flood-water level, its siphoning mechanism was creating a whirlpool along with a loud sucking sound. Like curious children, hubby threw a stick in to see if it would pass through the drainage pipe to reappear on the other side of the trail, while I filmed it. As you will see in this video, water mechanics prevailed. LOL.
Our walk was cut short by a phone call (the risk of using phones for cameras), but not before I captured one of my favorite sites - a fungus bloom. This was a new one I hadn’t previously seen during our explorations on this trail. I find its floral habitat fascinating.
Back home, we also regularly walk around the neighborhoods we’re part of. Ours is a mixed-use, rural township with sheep, cow, and llama farms within a couple football-field’s distance, and neighbors’ home-grown chickens across the street from us. On the weekend of June 1, we walked up the street across from our neighborhood, where many of the homes at the top of the hill have wooded lots without a care for groomed yards and such. Here herds of white-tailed deer roam about and we’re sometimes fortunate enough to see their babies. On this occasion, I had left my phone at home and we turned around to retrieve it (10 minutes round trip) after hubby saw a fawn nestled at the base of a hollow stump in one such wooded yard.
God blessed us because this wonderful gift of new life was still there when we got back with my phone. I leave you with these amateur shots of new life in its natural habitat.
Show your friends and family how easy this nature-made happiness can be.
I’m not so big that I can’t get to all the comments (yet), so join the conversation.
Check some of my past nature posts and watch for future posts about the variety of other biomes we’ve visited. But more importantly, take a walk today and start your own symphony.
Aliens, Serial Killers, and Hidden Lairs
I’m republishing this post as an ode to the coming summer. Don’t hurry through Spring, mind you, but hold out hope for the glorious greenery to come.
Fungus is Such an Ugly Word
Have you ever seen a purple fungus, a passionate prince among the forest frippery?
Witch in the Woods
Credit: All photos by Cori Bren, divider art by Dreamstime.com - Portal to the witching wood
The Path Less Traveled
No well-worn paths for us today. We went off-trail, a natural rebellion. All photos by Cori Bren, on my trusty iPhone 8+.
A lovely walk in the woods, Cori. The video made me laugh. So happy to see someone else throw a stick into a whirlpool!
Best Wishes - Dave :)
.....and that stick and whirlpool video was the most suspenseful movie I have seen in years 😆. I wonder if that is really true about water circling a drain counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere? And if so.....WTH ??!