Prompt: Write a travel journal entry from your home, could be your living room, could be your bed. Write as though you’ve just arrived in a new place (because, in many ways, you have) and what you’re observing about the place and how you feel in it. Write what you see, hear, and touch, as though it’s all brand new. What are you learning about yourself in this different land, with all its deprivations? If you’d like to turn this into a visual entry, draw a map complete with notes about this foreign land’s customs, rituals, and routines.
My backyard is a mystical place full of wild animals, singing birds, and overgrown vegetation. Since we moved in eight years ago we have done nothing to refine it, but have mostly left it to the animals. Occasionally, we will go out and feed the fey and ask that we be protected, but mostly we just let it be. We have families of deer that make it home, there are hawks living in the ravine, and a groundhog that lives in our hill.
I’ve always been a fan of wild spaces and love to roam Big Sur, watch sunrises in Maine, and lie on rocks in Vermont. However, lately I’ve realized that travel is becoming unsustainable not only for my body, but also for the planet. I’ve been asking myself why “Big Nature” (i.e. those spectacular views from far away) is more appealing than “Little Nature” (which is closer to home). There is no real reason other than other places seem more exotic or mystical.
My challenge to myself was to spend more time enjoying what I have in my literal backyard. I bought myself a mosquito net pavilion as my love of nature doesn’t apply to small blood sucking creatures and vowed to spend more time exploring and enjoying my back yard. I outfitted my Peace Pagoda with a comfy outdoor chair, a table, and a citronella candle and settled in to observe.
My first observation is that my backyard is really loud. There are all sorts of birds singing, the breeze ruffles the trees, and it is easy to forget that I’m in a very suburban backyard. The other amazing thing about my yard is that because it overlooks a deep and steep ravine in some ways it is like sitting in the treetops. Yesterday I had a bird’s eye view (pun intended) of a pair of hawks. I got to sit and watch them for about 20 minutes before one flew off. What was funny is that as soon as one flew off, a blue jay decided to show up and taunt the remaining hawk by dive-bombing her and invading her perch. She soon flew off.
I sat and listened for a while and just really listened to the breeze and the birds and I realized that I had a symphony right in my backyard. There was a tremendous sense of peace just being out here and feeling like part of nature. My backyard is an oasis for the eyes as well as I’m surrounded by all types of greenery and the shade from above means that my little Peace Pagoda stays cool even when it is hot outside.
The thing about the Peace Pagoda is that while I am a very driven person and always feel that I have to be doing something in the Peace Pagoda it feels right to just be.