When I’m out rambling around, it’s not until I can “feel” the day that I know I’ve finally turned off the incessant thoughts in my head and that my senses are in touch with my surroundings. Maybe it’s akin to a dog sniffing the air: what’s going on? what’s out there today? What does the day feel like?
On my walk last week, with no new snow for a week or so, everything felt kind of worn out and tired. The snow was dirty and covered with pine needles and small sticks. On the road, the snow had melted, then turned to ice and slush. In some places there were huge drifts while other spots had bare ground. In the field, the grasses were all matted down in strange hummocks, looking like some strangely tilled farm.
Yet on a walk two weeks previous, with similar snow conditions, it felt different. It was a warm day for winter, 45 or so, although windy. The big December snowstorm and all the holiday hoopla had passed. The “crowds” that were staying at their cabins over the holidays had left, and it was quiet again. I saw no one on the road. So the day felt like “afterward,” the downtime, when nothing much is happening, no bad weather to withstand or plans to make, just enjoy the warm sun and being lazy.
On my walks, whenever I start to feel my mind wander, I like to stop, check in with my senses: smell the pines, feel the warm or cold air, or hear the juncos or a car down the road. What does it all add up to? What’s the mood of the day? Sometimes a gray day, with no sounds at all, feels sad and subdued, Or maybe there’s clouds building up to the west, the wind has come up, so there’s a sense of expectation, maybe a change in the weather. Other days, the sun is slanting from a new direction, and the magpies are afloat; it feels like the earth has turned a corner.
“Enough with these feelings,” I can hear my dad grumble. But getting a sense of your surroundings is a grounding, a way of staying alert. It’s what animals and native peoples do, who need to be constantly aware of their surroundings, alert for possible danger but also for possible rewards. Feeling the day means I’m in the world, and that’s a good place to be.
Wonderful photos and shadows. I wonder if lazy also means present, just being, not doing--and if there is a way to transform that word.
Posted by: shoney | February 03, 2012 at 06:19 AM
"Feeling the day means I'm in the world." I couldn't agree more with this sentiment, and many that preceded it. I'm glad I stumbled across your blog today. Lovely photos and writing!
Posted by: Emily | February 03, 2012 at 02:25 PM
I love the description of a day feeling "afterward". Some days definitely have that "preparation" apprehensiveness, others are really "in it", and then there's the afterward, signified by lots of little evidence of a population moved on (like a stadium with all the trash remaining after a sporting event).
Posted by: Jotham | February 06, 2012 at 10:09 AM