Sights, Sounds and Smells of a Walk

I went for a walk today. 

Spring is on its way, and signs are creeping up all over. Recent rain and temperatures reaching 50º and above the last couple days mean that the snow that is left was likely shoveled or plowed into a pile and/or sunshine never touches it. Snow is forecast again this week, but change is upon us. 

Often, when I walk, I will put my earbuds in and listen to a book or podcast. Today, the angels suggested an “old fashioned walk”, so I took a breather from “learning” and experienced more in that hour than I could have imagined. I noticed: 

- the wooded trail, which was covered in snow and mucky mud last week and rain yesterday, was mostly covered with dry leaves and dirt.  

- squirrels were gathering their hidden winter stores, and when I got too close to their treasures, they would chatter fiercely from a distance in my direction 

- I only saw one bird – a woodpecker- which I heard first, pecking its way around a diseased tree...and then it delighted me with its song, which isn’t what one would call “pretty”, but I was thrilled to hear it. Later in my walk, I was able to recognize it when I heard it again. 

- I heard so many birds. At first an owl, making a racket at noon! Nobody told it about Daylight Savings yesterday! There were chickadees, robins, and songbirds creating a cacophony of sound, and a crow letting them know who’s boss. Then! I started differentiating between sounds I heard in my left ear and sounds in my right ear. Children playing and garbage cans being drug up driveways were loudest, but eventually I was able to discern a bird call behind me in my right ear being echoed back by its friend in front of me in my left ear.  

- The lake (pictured above) is showing off one of my favorite colors in nature – the frosty blue green gray of the water beneath the shrinking layer of ice. Ice fishermen are no longer on the ice when just last week there were trucks and ice houses out there! 

- the air smelled so fresh (and didn’t hurt to inhale!). There was one very brief moment when I smelled the memory of skunk spray. I wondered if it had a face off (or tail off) with the red squirrel that was there yelling at me, or if the nearby house had a dog getting a tomato juice bath. Or, perhaps, it was the musky smell of a fox watching me tromp through its area – and that’s what had the squirrel agitated? 

I get awfully caught up in checking things off my to-do list, which is why I even multi-task my nature walks. I think I haven’t been doing myself any favors. I feel so revitalized, grounded, and connected to the earth and its beautiful creatures and sights after that walk. 

Will you join me in my quest to connect with Creation again?