The Treasures of the Day
June 18, 2023 - swallows, mayflies, baby birds!
Monday. Unseasonably cool air. Mist rises from the warm water. Swallows fly all around, so close I can hear their wings. Mayflies cover the dock, the rocks, and the plants - a huge hatch and a bird feast. For at least this one day, feeding their young ones is easy and everyone can eat their fill! Barn swallows land less than 10 feet away, ignoring me and the fishermen putting in their boats - the mayfly candy is just so enticing.
Nearby two mallard ducklings are preening themselves near the rocks. They are just big enough that mama will wander off and leave them alone for a little while, free to explore the cove on their own. After a swim around, they preen, stretch, and practice flapping what will eventually become their wings. Having completed their full duckling qigong routine, they seem very relaxed, unconcerned about the human activity around them.
Many birds that wouldn’t normally land quite so close come in for the candy. A spotted sandpiper flies back and forth gathering mayflies for a hidden nest. Purple martins whiz by, preferring to feast from the mud and the plants behind me while red-winged blackbirds and a grackle land on the nearby rocks. Everyone eats well today and it’s a photo feast for the photographer.
I indulge in this feast of treasures for over an hour before I decide I need to move. The mowers have arrived, there are more boats going in and I still need to take a walk. As I walk up the dock and around the corner I see the baby barn swallows are no longer being fed in the nests - they are out on the rocks! Back and forth the adults go while the youngsters explore and then vie for top position when the candy comes in.
I watch the little ones being fed, exploring, and picking at each other just like human siblings for another hour before I have to leave for work. Today’s walk will have to wait a little while but it was worth it. It’s only 8 AM on a Monday and already my treasure box is full! (There were >2000 photos to process!)
When I’m out in nature, I am looking for treasures. I tend to (mostly) look past the noise, the trash, the things that aren’t perhaps so beautiful because there are so many amazing things to catch my eye. The rest of my day I tend to see everything that’s wrong, everything that can go wrong, and everything that I might need to worry about. I want to shift my perspective in the non-nature walk part of my day.
To this end, I’ve added two intentions to my week. One is to actually tell people about the amazing things I’ve seen more often. When I join a meeting and someone says, “how are you today” I have always wanted to talk about baby birds or dragonflies, or the amazing ebony jewelwing damselfly I saw but I usually get too embarrassed and say something like “I’m ok, how are you?” I do share occasionally, when the sighting was particularly significant (battling great blue herons for instance), but most of the time I don’t.
When I share about the treasures I’ve seen, I get a flush in my face, a sense of embarrassment, a voice in my head that either says “You sound like a child” or “You sound like you’re bragging”. A voice that is trying to protect me by keeping the “serious adult” persona in place. A voice that likes to call me “sweet Polly purebred”, a college nickname that was never a compliment.
Talking about the beauties I am excited to see does feel childlike to me. This week I encountered a lovely young family out on a walk. There were four little boys and their mom. The oldest was pushing a stroller with the youngest in it and two other little boys were running up and down the walk. As I approached the kids, the oldest asked me, “Are you looking for birds?” I said I was and asked if he’d seen any. He told me about the great blue heron that had jumped off the branch and how the whole tree rattled. His little brother chimed in that he loved blue jays and the older one said, “he doesn’t know, he is only three”. I asked how old he was and he proudly informed me he was five. I asked the younger one what he loved about blue jays and he said, “They are blue!”
I don’t get embarrassed talking to children because I can speak the same language - but I did have trouble making eye contact with the mom who looked tired and wasn’t terribly interested in this little detour in their walk. Nonetheless, I managed to tell the kids to be on the lookout for giant woodpeckers and baby owls. I love seeing their big eyes when I describe the things they might someday see.
I find myself talking to more adults out on my walks as well. I feel the flush of embarrassment every time, but it turns out that once I allow myself to say, “I just saw a blue grosbeak!!” or “I’ve been watching the fluttery baby birds” a lot of people actually respond with interest or at least a smile. I’ve had more conversations this week than I usually do in many weeks combined.
I’m also trying to notice the treasures during the rest of my day. The taste of fresh basil from my little herb garden. The delicious broccolini, pea pods, and tomatoes from my farm share. Eating flowers for lunch! My cousin’s beautiful photos of her red sunflowers. The song my niece shared with me that is one of her favorites. The feeling I have when I take the time to do an inner smile meditation and thank my body for all it carries me through or after I get down on the floor and stretch. I’m taking the time each evening to make a list of the things I can remember, which has the interesting side effect of making me pause longer to take in each treasure along the way.
My friend Jeanne Malmgren inspired me to think more about this practice when she sent out this beautifully written post a few weeks ago. In it, she describes her expansive view of beauty and her long-time practice of looking for beautiful things:
To be sure, there were adult challenges in my week, but these were just the treasures from Monday! Every other day this week had treasures too!
There’s a risk I may become known as that crazy lady who’s always on about dragonfly wings and bird song. I’m warming to the idea. Many years ago I heard - and loved - a poem by Jenny Joseph entitled “Warning”. It started, “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple…” and ended with, “But maybe I ought to practice a little now? So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised when suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.”
I guess I’m just starting to practice.
As I grow older, I begin to realize how much of my time I spent looking at the past or gazing into the future, without paying any attention to my present existence; it's such a mistake to overlook the treasures of each day... Thanks for your beautiful words and stunning photography - both are treasures of my day. 😁
I would be so excited to run into you on a walk! Who doesn’t want to talk about birds and mayflies and all the amazing things in nature? What a gift to share. I think of Mary Oliver--“Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” The telling is crucial.
Also, that grackle photo is hilarious.