Welcome to 2020!
Happy New Year! It is hard to believe another year has come and gone, time truly does seem to speed up as we get older. This past year was an interesting, and trying, one for me. There were a number of "bumps in the road" that I needed to navigate and I turned 60. I am happy to see 2019 in the rear view mirror and anxious to see what 2020 has in store.
I chose this quote as the title for this post because I think the start of the new year is a perfect time to re-energize your soul and get excited about what may lie ahead. I have a growing collection of quotations - mostly of nature and photography - and sometimes I go to them for inspiration. I do not know when I added this quote to my collection but I knew immediately that it was going to be the title of a blog post some day.
I love nature, I particularly love being in the woods. I live at the end of a dead end street and have a large woods bordering two sides of my property. I can walk out my door and within minutes be on a trail. A few years ago, I was having a discussion with a woman about religion and going to church. I pointed to the woods and told her she was looking at my "church"; there is no better place to be in order to become one with your spiritual guide. I think it took her by surprise at first but after a few minutes, she understood. Alone in the woods is the best place to be to reflect on life and to "re-energize your soul."
I did an interview a few years ago and was asked, "What do you think about when you’re by yourself?" I found that to be a very interesting question and after giving it some thought I answered it. I finished the answer with "When I am out for a hike in the woods I try not to think but to listen." No one had ever asked me that before and I never gave it much thought but it is true. I'm not even sure that "listen" is the proper word because it is more than that. My hearing is quite poor so listen is more of a metaphor because I am using sight, sound, smell and touch to learn about what is happening around me. I am fortunate that even though my hearing is poor I can still hear many of the sounds of nature on a quiet day - particularly birds singing (
Stop and Listen to the Birds Sing) or a twig snapping. The snapping of a twig is important to hear because it could indicate a deer is nearby or maybe a bear. It is good to know either way.
I'm happiest when I have nowhere to go and all day to get there. I walk slowly with my head on a pivot trying to take everything in. When I come across some wildlife, I stop so as not to scare it off. I watch for as long as I can, studying what it is doing and trying to determine why; all the while shooting if I can. The more I understand the actions of my quarry the better prepared I am to photograph them. I may stop at a stream along the way and watch for a fish to swim by or search for footprints along the bank.
Flora and fauna are not the only things to watch for; there are plenty of interesting man-made features to spark interest. The first time I hiked the Pine Hill trail in Shark River Park I came across some interesting rock formations, aka cairns. There happened to be a deer stand not too far off the trail so I cannot be sure if the cairns were there to mark the location or if it was just coincidence. The next time I was there, the formations had changed and grown in size. It would have been very easy to walk by had I not been scanning the woods, both high and low.
I hope I have inspired you to get out and reacquaint yourself with Mother Nature. Re-energize you soul with her unending beauty and grace. The images used in the blog are some of my favorite from 2019; you may have seen them in previous posts here or on my photography blog,
Exploring Photography with Joe Valencia.
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