Journey in Place: Steps for Befriending a Special Place

 

Rue Anemone and Violet on a Spring day

This post is my response to the week #3 exercises from Janisse Ray's "Journey in Place" course. You can follow her (and join in!) on her Trackless Wild Substack. This week Janisse asks us to write a linear poem listing ways to bond with a place. Here's mine.

Steps for Befriending a Special Place:

• Walk its boundaries--its hills and valleys
• Follow its streams
• Hug some trees. Put your nose against the bark and breathe in deep
• Look at maps and then make your own
• Sit very still and watch a squirrel or deer as it feeds
• Walk every trail
• Lie on your back and look up at the treetops
• Keep a bird list
• Learn the history of the place
• Find a cozy picnic spot and enjoy your lunch as you sit and appreciate the view
• Visit at dawn and dusk
• Create your own names for points of interest--Snaky Elm, Fox Cove, Kingfisher Island, Hepatica Hill, Bloodroot Trail
• Pick a location and monitor the changes weekly, monthly, or through the seasons
• Put your toes in the water of a stream
• Touch the mucky mud. Take a handful and smell it
• Close your eyes and listen for 5 minutes
• Taste some dirt
• Identify the plants and trees
• Look for fish and frogs in its waters
• Record changes through the seasons--flowers, insects, bird and animal populations
• Make a photo album
• Look for insects. Carry a bug jar so you can catch and look closely. Let them go when you're done
• Visit in the heat of summer and on a frosty morning
• Look for animal nests and dens
• Record the temperature at different locations on the same day
• Walk in the rain
• Explore the topography and know where the water goes
• Try to walk up to a turtle without scaring it into the water
• Take a long piece of string and make a circle on the ground. Record everything you see in the circle. Use a magnifying lens and do a deep dive
• Visit in the evening and watch the fireflies come out
• Roll some logs and see what's living under them. Roll the logs back when you're done
• Look for spores on the underside of fern leaves
• Learn some frog calls and go out at night for a frog listening party
• Compare the soil from the hilltops with the soil from down in the valleys
• Hunt for fungus. Turn over mushrooms to look for pores or gills. Make a spore print on some paper. Touch some jelly fungus
• Note invasive species--remove if possible, or if the property is not your own, join groups doing invasive removal projects
• Find a rotting log. Break off a fistful of decaying material and roll it in your hand. Smell the sweet fresh smell of new soil
• Clean up trash
• Take a friend on a guided tour
• Sit in your special place and feel the warmth of the sun and the breeze on your skin. Breathe deeply and give thanks  

Searching for Feathers

"Hope" is the thing with feathers

-- Emily Dickinson

In our consciousness, there are many negative seeds and also many positive seeds. The practice is to avoid watering the negative seeds, and to identify and water the positive seeds every day.
--Thich Nhat Hanh

Cardinal watching me through the rain

I'm so very glad that it is finally 2018. 2017 was a spectacularly crappy year, for many reasons that I won't go into. Some were the obvious troubles that we're all faced with these days, and others were very personal, but it was definitely a year that I would like to put behind me. 2017 was a year of too many challenges. Sometimes I felt scared, sad or angry. There have been days and weeks where I was filled utter despair and anxiety, where the future seemed dark. But I believe that I am an optimist at heart and didn't want to succumb. I didn't want the negative things to drag me down with them. I tried various coping strategies for dealing with my feelings, with varying degrees of success. Not surprisingly, the best one so far has come from within. I made an attitude adjustment. I'm working to replace all that negativity around me by flooding my brain with the positive things. Rather than allowing myself to wallow in the "why me's", I've been trying to be thankful, to look for the good, and to appreciate the beauty around me. It's not easy, especially when I'm feeling down, but when I can actually pull this off it works really well. And when I need inspiration, I often turn to birds. Birds are easy. They're everywhere and yet each time I see them I find something new to appreciate and that turns my attention from my own brain and focuses it outward to the world.

Carolina Wren singing

Even in freezing cold, sweltering heat, or on a gray rainy day, I can look out my window and see these beautiful, interesting, and sometimes funny creatures moving around in the trees and shrubs.

White-throated Sparrow cocks his head

We have installed bird feeders all around the front and back yards and they are active year round. Usually it is just birds, but sometimes a lucky squirrel hurls itself from a bush and lands in the tray, and of course, there are always spilled seeds on the ground for the chipmunks (and our dog). Sometimes I will look out and see nothing but mourning doves or house finches, gobbling away in the feeders.

Doves, House Finches, Pine Warbler and Oriole all sharing a meal

Other days, great flocks of grackles descend on the yard, chasing the rest of the birds off of the seed and even away from the jelly that I leave out for orioles. In the spring, cooper's hawks come to hunt at the bird feeders. And it's all good. I love watching them all. Each one has its good points. I don't mind the responsibility of buying food, filling the feeders and keeping them clean, because it gives me the opportunity to watch these little feathered miracles up close.

Hermit Thrush in the driveway

The bright red on a Downy Woodpecker is always a thrill

House Finches are beautiful

Making an EBird report from the kitchen window takes my mind off of everything but watching the birds to complete my list. And after making these lists for several years now, I know which birds come and go with the seasons and wait in joyful anticipation for the return of the robins and waxwings, the juncos and sapsuckers, and the occasional rarity.

Long whiskers on a Pine Warbler

Unusual coloration on this Carolina Wren caught my eye

Ruby-crowned kinglet turns its head to find seeds

Last winter we "hosted" a rare rufous hummingbird and a trio of also rare orioles. It took a lot of work to keep the feeders full, thawed and clean through the winter so the hummer wouldn't starve. Knowing that he might return this year has given me much to look forward to. So far, no sign of the little guy, but his friends, the orioles, came back last week. When I hear their cackling calls and catch a glimpse of bright orange, it gives me a thrill and is just another reminder that life is good and that I am lucky indeed. I'm still hoping to see a rusty brown hummingbird blur zipping across the yard one of these days, and even though he hasn't shown up yet, just knowing there is a chance is good enough. So I'm searching for feathers--the beauty, goodness and joy in life--and watering those positive seeds, and I think it's working. I'm looking forward to a great year to come.

The vivid orange of a male Baltimore Oriole takes my breath away