Look Around

So much of our life is spent in autofocus, running on autopilot. We spend most days in a routine of working, relaxing (hopefully), and sleeping, and it can be easy to zone out from our surroundings. Seeing the same buildings, trees, streets day after day causes them to fade into the background, so we only take notice of novelties (the branch that fell after a storm, or the new paint job on a tall wooden fence).

This autofocus can prevent us from truly living in our environment. Sometimes we need to take a moment and focus manually on the world around us. Stop and listen, really listen, to the cardinal singing in your yard. Listen to the one singing down the block. You may notice a different style from one cardinal to the other, where before you heard only "bird."

Stop and look closely at the flowers on the Greenway. There are thousands of gray-headed coneflowers blooming right now, so many they are easy to skim past. But look--this one's disc florets have barely begun to bloom, and that one over there is nearly finished. This one has a tiny bee hard at work, its entire body dusted with fine yellow particles. Would you imagine a coneflower has that much pollen on its plain little rounded flowerhead?

And there--that one has a teeny, almost translucent katydid nymph perched elegantly atop it, mid-meal with bits of pollen stuck to its threadlike antennae and tiny mandibles.And look at that! I have no idea what that fellow is, but he's striking, with deep black wings and an almost muscular-looking hind leg.

So many purple coneflowers! But look at that one--weird! It has ray florets growing straight up out of its center, where all the other coneflowers have plain little disc florets, with the rays only circling the edges. What causes that?

But don't forget to look up occasionally too, lest you miss the possum lumbering across the sidewalk, or the sandhill crane winging its way silently overhead. Tread softly to creep up on all the frogs hanging out by the Great Snail Crossing before they leap away with angry peeps. Watch for snakes on the trail, and then laugh at yourself for jumping every time you see a sinuous twig on the pavement.

How lucky we are to be able to share this world, with so many tiny lives carrying on eating, sleeping, reproducing, day in and day out. Every bird, every insect, every plant we see is trying to live its life the same way as you and me. Some are successful, many aren't. It is worth our time to get to know them and their struggles.