Six of us met on a warm, droughty but beautiful Sunday the 27th. We were there to practice mindfulness and do some nature journaling. Greg, Amy, and Michelle were new to the preserve, while Jan, Jim, and I have been visiting for years and still find things to delight us.
As the leader for the event, I suggested that we walk to the north pond with a mindful awareness of our walking, of how our legs, feet, and ankles keep us balanced and moving over uneven ground mostly without our noticing. In the section of Mindfulness in Texas Nature in which I wrote about Sheri Capehart Nature Preserve, I paid close attention to what it was like to walk through sand, gravel, and climb a couple of natural steps up to the bluff. And today, people talked about the way we balance while stepping on a root and how it feels when walking downhill or in sand.
That kind of present-moment awareness is the point of mindfulness, which encourages us to take some time for quiet and stillness, and to have fewer times when our “mind is elsewhere” and we go through the day on autopilot. During visits to nature, mindfulness means less involvement with gadgets and chatting (though gadgets and talking can be great at other times) and taking time to fully notice what we are experiencing.
I asked everyone to wander around the pond for a while, maybe finding something that pulled at our attention – a dragonfly, the calm water that formed a mirror of the trees on the opposite shore, or anything else. As I followed the trail, I noticed a turtle resting on a low willow branch on the same level as the shallow water and soil. This red-eared slider was motionless in the morning sun, maybe warming a little or getting ready for a day of nibbling plants or crustaceans.
As I sat for a while, mimicking the turtle’s stillness and patience, he extended his head further out to look around. Perhaps he found the world to his liking (or maybe decided he wasn’t quite ready for it yet), and drew his head back closer to his shell. Was it satisfaction, or hesitation? I had a little curiosity about this, and stayed. It’s also true that the turtle was modeling for me a kind of unhurried stillness that felt right.
The group then talked a little about nature journaling and I shared some thoughts about how it can be beneficial for us. (If you would like more information, have a look at our profile on the “Nature Challenge” website and click our “Nature Journaling Challenge.”) We took some more time for writing or drawing, and met once more to discuss how that went.
It was a great morning with a wonderful group of people. And there will certainly be more walks – for in-person events, please stay in touch with us through the Facebook page or the “Events” page of our website.