I want to share something that everyone has heard before but I think another reminder never hurts.
I often feel like life is slipping away and time is flying by way too fast. This feels like anxiety and discontent deep in my body. It happens when I’m not slowing down or “seizing the moment” as they say. When I first heard of this saying: seize the moment or carpe diem, I was inspired, but I didn’t know what “seizing the moment” felt like. Now I have a strong image attached to what it feels like based on all of the times I have felt successful at doing it. To me, a moment seized is a moment of full sensory intake. Feeling my body on the inside – my breaths and heart beat. And feeling my body on the outside. Everything my skin is touching, the feeling of gravity pulling me down. And also what I’m looking at (which is often very different from what I’m seeing). Taking in the full range of what is in my field of vision. Also the faint sounds that I wasn’t hearing, the smells, the taste in my mouth and the taste of the air as I breathe it in.
The fortunate thing about moment seizing is that it can be any moment. It doesn’t have to be a quiet moment in nature. It can be this moment now, while I’m typing. Really feeling the keys of the keyboard, seeing the colors of my computer. Or driving to work, talking to a friend, watching T.V. or any other random moment. I have yet to find a task that I couldn’t do while at the same time living through my senses. The hard part is remembering to do it and making the effort.
When I’m living this way, soaking in moments throughout the day, it doesn’t feel like my life is slipping away. Time feels like its passing by just right and I feel content. Especially if I am also making time to be alone in nature. The way I see it, we aren’t going to have these bodies forever or this way of experiencing life. Some day that will all be gone. But right now everything is so tactile and real, even if it is pain, it is a real feeling that I can feel to the fullest if I just choose to do so.
common yellowthroat track?
I think I found yellowthroat tracks today. Hard to say because the resources that are out there on bird tracking leave much to be desired. Want to hear my plan to beat the lacking field guides? We have a friend who does bird banding (catching birds in a fine net and putting a band on their leg). He is going to let us take the birds, ink up their feet and let them hop around on pieces of paper. This may or may not seem awesome to you, but for a person dying to see things like 100%-known perfect yellowthroat tracks, this is huge. We could collect a giant database of perfect known-species bird tracks and release them to the public (a lot of trackers are drooling right now). Also, check out this horned lizard scat. It is similar to normal lizard scats with the white cap but it has more girth.
horned lizard scat
Natural Skills 