A Beautiful New Journey
On the first day of this new adventure I felt the trail welcoming me down a new path in my local park. I meandered down the trail looking for any interesting sights in this unexplored section. I started this undertaking on April 27th, heading out at 9:00 on a sunny morning as the day was beginning to warm up. I had the idea for this simple project while spending time in nature the previous weekend. I was up at a cabin in Point Reyes, taking in the natural beauty and thinking about how to incorporate the five elements into daily life. At the same time I was hoping to gain a sense of peace and awareness of my natural environment. That led to the decision that daily, for the next year, I’d visit a single place - noticing and tracking changes.
I chose a local park just down the road from my house figuring minimal travel would increase my likelihood of compliance on this daily commitment. I wanted to make this a simple experiment that many others could adopt, should they be interested. Nature and awareness of the natural environment should be accessible to most people. Even in large cities there are parks and natural spaces where people can visit, glimpsing the changes in plants growing, watching birds and squirrels frequent the trees, and taking a few moments to be aware of something that distracts from day to day worries and responsibilities.
Even though I’ve frequented this park for trail runs and hikes for over 10 years, I took a turn down a little path that I had overlooked on previous visits thinking it was just a little spur mountain bike loop. This new sense of curiosity led me to discover a sweet and enjoyable trail that will serve as the perfect area of exploration for this new project.
The first day I mapped out my area and got a lay of the land. I took my time and walked carefully and slowly down the trail. With spring being an ideal time to start a project like this, I stopped to notice and photograph many flowers. Then I turned my attention to the broader surroundings and listened to the sounds of the forest. I noted the five elements. Ether: the sound of the bird chips reverberated in space; Air: wind was blowing some of the fragile flowers making it hard for me to photograph them while they moved out of focus; Fire: the sun was warming up the air; Water: the ground still wet from the weekend’s rain and the plants holding some drops of moisture; Earth: the firm and moist soil that was not muddy but held a healthy amount of water, like a wrung out sponge.
In subsequent days I would head out not expecting to see much of a change from the previous day only to be surprised at what I would find. New flowers that had bloomed since the prior day, seemingly out of nowhere on the redwood sorrel! Beautiful, white, rose-like flowers on the thimble berry had fallen off. The California rose could bloom from a bud from one day to the next. On another bush the petals could wilt away from one day to the next.
The abundance of spring reproduction provides many opportunities to notice colorful blooms and activity. Crimson columbine is a beautiful, delicate flower that’s just barely noticeable along the trail. The western hound’s tongue blue flower remained unchanged for several days, a hearty and persistent bloom. I identified a beautiful, lacy flower - fat solomon’s seal. According to my guide the delicate white to cream flowers will ripen into scarlet red berries, which are edible, so I have noted to watch for this change. So far it looks like a slow transformation in comparison with the blooming or pollinating of the flowers.
Bird chatter was much quieter if I visited the park in the afternoon as opposed to the morning but was replaced by a distinct sound of an insect clicking...possibly cicadas? A woodpecker worked feverishly at a tree one afternoon, though I never noticed it again. One morning on an early visit to the park an owl was still calling.
On one of my trips down the trail I had a companion with me. We walked quietly a short distance apart. Rather than being distracted by my companion, I had an asset in another set of eyes to notice things along the path. He spotted a snail in the trail that I missed while gawking at flowers, and then he noticed a hummingbird flitting around while I had my eyes glued to the trail should I not miss another snail or interesting sight right there in plain sight.
One day, just a short distance into the trail, I came upon a few tufts of fur. There must have been some kerfuffle between the fur’s owner and another animal of the forest. My first inclination was that the fur belonged to a skunk, but I knelt down close to the fur and it didn’t have any odor. Upon closer examination, I noticed the fur was coming off a narrow, sinewy strand that looked like a tail. I’m fairly certain it was from a raccoon who possibly became dinner for a coyote.
If the subtleties and surprises of what I’ve seen day to day in this first week are any sign of what’s to come, there’s a whole lot more to discover as the five elements unfold into the coming seasons.
