I move through spaces and skim over them with my senses, and I think I’m pretty typical in that. When we are in New York City, the energy and pace of the city sweeps me up and before long, I am racing down the street at the pace of people who live there, staring straight ahead, not seeing faces, and to be honest, not really seeing anything.
So, I have to stop. When I do that on the streets of NYC, I become the obvious tourist, but what a payoff! Look up! The art and architecture on the tops of tall buildings alone is totally wasted unless I stop, look up . . . and breathe. The sights of what human beings have created then often take my breath away. Right there in the space above my head is one of the greatest art shows on earth, and all I have to do is stop and look up.
I do this rush through spaces here at home, too, I’m afraid. Retirement is sort of squashing most of my excuses for doing that. I can actually go outside and not be in a hurry. I can stop. Look around: up, down, side to side, back and forth. I can even squat down and look at the Earth floor that I’ve been walking on as if it owes me the platform. As I do this more and more often, I don’t look so much like a tourist as “that weird neighbor who stands around staring at nothing.”
It’s not nothing. Every single time I stop and squat, the sights of what the Universe has created here on Mother Earth takes my breath away. Fast moving me sees weeds. Stopping and looking me sees these amazing plants all of which have names. Here are some plant friends I’m getting to know. Please meet Blue Field Madder (aka Sherardia), Parsley Piert (aka Alchemilla), and this moss called Plagiomnium. Aren’t they amazingingly beautiful? Sometimes the best delights are right under our feet.
~Bob Patrick
