Hepatica, blooming on the Munger Trail last spring. |
"Wildflowers," I said.
"What's blooming?" she asked.
"Nothing yet," I responded, "but soon there will be lots of flowers here."
Trillium, Munger Trail. |
"Yes," I said, over my shoulder.
"They're beautiful!" she shouted.
"Yes, they are!" I responded.
The Big Picture, taken a few days ago. |
I suppose, to some extent, I shouldn't feel superior. They have different goals than I do, and I couldn't move as fast as they do, even if I wanted to. And perhaps I'm glad that they don't notice all the wildflowers--some rare and fragile plants manage to survive under the radar, as it were, and too much human attention isn't good for wild things. I know there are a few other wildflower freaks out there because I occasionally see their tracks through the grass, leading up to a spot where, say, a Yellow Lady Slipper grows...
Yellow Lady Slipper, Munger Trail. |
So I know I'm not alone in appreciating Mother Nature's small details. But there's no doubt that most folks feel rushed and pressured through their lives, and squeezing in a Saturday-morning jog can be a real challenge in our rat-race of a culture, where folks feel they need to be working all the time. Multi-tasking has become a way of life for far too many of us. All too often, we feel that we have so many "promises to keep" that we can't explore the "woods" that are so "lovely, dark and deep." (Let's see who's paying attention: the first member of the class of 2015 who provides the author and title of the poem I just quoted in a comment on this post gets 1 extra point.)
I see a lot of these snails as I look for flowers... |
Ghost Plant (Indian Pipes), Munger Trail, taken a few days ago. Rather rare, it grows in dark places & needs no chlorophyll. It's a myco-heterotroph: it gets its energy from a fungus in the soil. I think Munger Trail is very rich in fungi... |
I can't tell you how many times I've gone down the Trail in one direction, thinking the flower I'm looking for just isn't blooming yet, only to find it staring at me when I come back the other way. Shifting your perspective reveals wonders...
So, I have one piece of advice for you (Don't be a spandex person!) and one question for you to answer. I want you to work on answering this question all year
So, I have one piece of advice for you (Don't be a spandex person!) and one question for you to answer. I want you to work on answering this question all year
- in your blog,
- in your Capstone Project,
- in your Senior Speech...
Come on, this has been up an hour, how had the extra credit not been claimed??
ReplyDeleteMy question exactly!
ReplyDeleteRobert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
ReplyDeleteThat's right.
DeleteHmmm...a little bird told me that a certain Physics teacher emailed some students to let them know there was an extra-credit opportunity in this post.
ReplyDelete