This morning on my walk I saw six painted turtles sunning on a log in a pond, several ducks swimming, and a pileated woodpecker on a tree branch 15 feet above my head. I realized that there is something magical and healing about seeing and experiencing
Wild Things
on my walks.
For me wild creatures and wild flowers are a pathway to wonder and delight. That’s one reason I love living in Minnesota. There are so many wild areas just waiting to be explored. I didn’t even take out my phone to make photos this morning. Instead, I simply paused and soaked in the delight of the wild creatures I spotted.
“I am Mother Nature. All of creation bows before me. When people leave their cities and learn of me—walk in my woods, bathe in my rivers, eat of my harvest—they will find healing to their souls. But stray from me and return to the supposed wisdom of men, and they will find themselves in chains once more.”
― Rip Van Winkle and the Pumpkin Lantern
A photo of a pileated woodpecker by the pond behind our house in 2017.
Seeing the pileated woodpecker today was a special delight. As I was walking I heard a soft tap tap tap above my head. When I looked up at the tree above me, there it was, slowly pecking and eating. I paused and simply watched. After about 20 seconds the bird noticed me below and ducked to the other side of the limb above me and I walked on.
Nature Heals
I don’t know about you but I’ve been having a hard time dealing with everything that’s happening in the world right now. As I experience the drought and breathe smoke from wildfires far away, feel the intense heat day after day, hear of devastating floods around the world, see the increase in violence here and around the country, and watch the COVID-19 cases spike again I’m feeling like I’m living in apocalyptic times.
Though I am not suffering from fires, floods, violence, illness or loss, I feel the losses and devastation so many in the world are experiencing as a kind of background hum that doesn’t go away. And I feel great sadness for the pain and loss so many are going through.
It becomes more important than ever for me to bring myself into the present moment. And being in nature, experiencing wild things, helps me more than anything else.
Becoming a student of wonder
And so, today, I come back to Mary Oliver, a lover of nature and student of wonder, and one of her most well-known poems.
Wild Geese
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
―
Earlier this week, this tiny green tree frog plopped onto the path in front of me from a branch overhead. It was one of those wake-up calls that stopped me in my tracks, and caused me to ponder the wonder and beauty of nature.
Do you also love wild things? And does experiencing them in nature make your heart sing and your pulse race?
May you walk in beauty.
Boundary waters beauty. Fire now threatens large parts of the area.
Wild things in my own back yard
Mama wood duck and ducklings, seen this week on my walk
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