OUTDOORS DISCOVERIES WHILE THINKING

FROM A CITY PARK TO SHIMMERING WATERWAYS:


Observing people and nature, from park benches, has long been a tradition for those who love to people watch. You watch people move about, play, relax on blankets, have picnics, and dogs walk their owners.  There are birds, squirrels, butterflies, and other insects in summer; a great cosmic cross section between Nature and City.  If your Critique group can not afford to travel to a state park or wooded area, city parks are ideal places to fill your notebooks with observations of people and nature in action.  Perhaps, what you will find best about this kind of note-taking, is park visitors range in age from birth to people living their last days.  Energy levels vary from frenetic children to fully relaxed families to those confined to observing, due to physical or age-related reasons.  All this is enbeded within a world of nature.  I am reminded of poets as I write this. 

Shift your Critique group to a shimmering lake, a river, an ocean, a boat, a ship, or people swimming on a beach.  Here you will fill your notebooks with action, relaxation, a bit of humor maybe, and so much more.  On water you are in a different world.  Sun, sky, clouds, the shore, a distant view and naturally watery things dominate.  The water may shimmer, rock you from side to side and up and down.  Water birds may fly high above you, dive into the water to capture food, or hover nearby, calling to you and each other.  What may have looked quiet from the shore, turns into a noise-filled place.  An irony is solitude may also introduce itself.  You better bring water-proof notebooks to this watery exploration.  Depending on the body of water you choose, you may meet water creatures who are curious about you.  Maybe they have their own mental notebooks covering you waterless, airy-world creatures.  Think of tales from the point of view of a fish or other water-dweller; such as whales, turtles, a water-moccasin, water-lillies, a dragonfly, etc.  What must they think of us!

HIKING OR BIKING THROUGH PARKS:

Hiking or biking through mountains or a valley will offer you a different perspective. Visiting city, state, or federal parks with varied landscapes, and people shaped by their landscape, will fill a notebook.  A regular reader made this observation:  "I think the same techniques could be applied to the natural world. What do you see from the top of a tree, from the ground or from under a log?"  The Ann Finkelstein quote is from a comment on my previous post, but her words fit so well, I thankfully include her perfect thought.  If you can't hike, bike, or afford to travel, then considere interviewing a Forest Ranger; a person who definitely sees a different world than we do?  Also consider talking to bird watchers, avid campers, hikers, and biking enthusiasts, with notebook in hand.  Is there an astronomy club in your area?  Don't forget the nightsky, nor the night.  Notice also your feelings in all these different settings I mention.  Outdoors life has its own feel, its own set of emotions, so be aware of this while taking notes.  Sometimes you can find these people living in your own neighborhood, if you need to talk to or interview outdoors people.

THINKING ON THINKING:

Some closing thoughts.  There is overlap in these posts by necessity.  You and I need to be in the moment, as Marilyn vos Savant, once suggested in something I read in Parade Magazine.  Whether with a Critique group, a few friends, or by yourself, you will find being in the moment contains volumes of information, which no one or no group can fully record.  The better we get as writers, the better we get at distilling all this into as few words as possible, while exciting our readers interest, by keeping them in the moment in their minds and hearts.  Writing is a never-ending learning process.  Best wishes to those of you, who like the late Martin Luther King, proclaim in your writings, "I HAVE A DREAM!"



(When thinking how hard it is to write, let us consider Martin Luther King, whose birthday we are about to celebrate.  He was not quite through the third month of his 39th. year of life when he was killed.  In writing his sermons and speeches he labored over his words as we do.  He was a writer.  I will never know how he accomplished so much in 39 short years of life, even limiting his life to his writings, only.  However, that word "DREAM" is the key.  It's our key too.  Don't stop your dream, whatever your age.  Hard is not impossible.  Martin Luther King showed every writer that truth.)