To be in touch with wonder in the woods and fields nearby, and knowing you are content with the everyday miracles of life, expands awareness and lifts the soul in Daydreaming on the Porch

… Life is filled with suffering, but it is also filled with many wonders, like the blue sky, the sunshine, the eyes of a baby. To suffer is not enough. We must also be in touch with the wonders of life. They are within us and all around us, everywhere , any time…

Do we need to make a special effort to enjoy the beauty of the blue sky? Do we have to practice to be able to enjoy it? No, we just enjoy it. Each second, each minute of our lives can be like this. Wherever we are, any time, we have the capacity to enjoy the sunshine, the presence of each other, even the sensation of our breathing…We can be in touch with these things right now. It would be a pity if we are only aware of suffering…


Thich Nhat Hanh

From Being Peace in the collection of his work entitled Essential Writings

I am drawn again and again to four special places nearby where I can seek and discover, as if for the first time, the special wonder and joy of woods, trees, flowers, and blue skies in familiar places, my sanctuaries, if you will. These include a state park in the middle of the bustling city where I live, an oasis of calm and tranquility; a city park on the site where a world exposition we held in the early 1900s, and which today still has the small lakes and huge oaks trees that were there a century ago; a world-famous, historic garden along a tidal river that was established in the late 1600s and today has multiple paths winding among small lakes, hundreds of very of camellias and azaleas, and many live oaks, cypress and other trees in a forested section; and lastly, a county nature preserve and interpretive center farther out in the countryside, offering walking trails and through varied terrain and a stillness that makes the visitor there feel as if he’s out in the middle of nowhere.

People ask me sometimes why I don’t get away on a day trip, or a long road trip lasting a week or more. See new places and explore the countryside like I used to do. The reason I don’t, though I might before long, is that I can truly say since retirement I have turned into a homebody. I have so many things here at home to keep me busy, and when I do need to get out, I have all those parks, gardens and natural areas to visit, escaping from the tumult of the city, relaxing while I engage in my favorite past-time — Nature photography — primarily of flowers and landscapes. I never tire of any off those places, and I emerge from them rejuvenated, as I have time and again over the past two decades. I am eternally grateful to live in a place blessed with so much natural beauty during any season of the year.

When I’m home, I can look out my window and see trees, clouds and sunsets. I can get in my car and drive a few minutes to a huge, tree-filled vacant lot in the middle of developed neighborhoods that has an ancient red oak in the midst of it, which calls out to me in its solitary splendor every time I drive by. I invariably take a moment to admire it and express gratitude for such stately wonders of Nature.

In those peaceful sanctuaries that are so close by, I can concentrate on beauty and cast off negative thoughts, emotions, and images that seem to want to intrude so often on my consciousness. I can attain a purer form of being and oneness with the world as my thoughts and awareness, and full concentration, focus on the good and the beautiful just by walking in the woods or looking up above the trees to the blue sky.

As Thich Nhat Hanh says, we have the capacity at any moment in our lives to enjoy those blue skies, even if it is cloudy and overcast. We know it is there just beyond the dark clouds.

I love it when a brighter overcast light comes through the clouds. It makes me want to immediately get up from the sofa where I often read and doze off for a nap, go outside for a few minutes, walk along a short path, and look at the live oaks just beyond my apartment building, alongside the tidal creek and marsh I’ve come to love in the short year I’ve lived here.

Yesterday on my walks at both the state park and city park, taking many pictures, of course, I felt winter’s wind and deep chill coming in on a cold front. It’s cold out now at 4 am as I write this, with temps dropping into the 30s. But this kind of typical January weather feels so good and invigorating when you’re all bundled up in your new winter coat and cap.

I photographed a number of trees yesterday, their branches bare and outlined against a sky that was bright blue amidst patches of puffy clouds, a reminder of the wonder of those everyday experiences that can be so blissfully transformative. All it takes is mindfully looking at all that’s around you. It’s that simple.

Sit quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.

Zen proverb

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things in Nature have a message you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.

Eleanor’s Duse

A winter afternoon walk at Hampton Park

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Last updated January 14, 2023