Six Minutes of Observation

Eastern swallowtail foraging at Pride of Barbados.

Naturalist Bruce Beehler recently wrote It’s September. Seize the moment. in the Opinion section of The Washington Post.

Beehler was fortunate to spend six days on a secluded island giving him a rich opportunity to observe not only the abundant wildlife and natural features on the island but also to reflect on his life experiences, dreams, and the importance of his personal relationships. His thoughtful and insightful writing had me thinking about the importance of intentionally seeking out natural spaces and all the discoveries to be found in them, both physical and emotional.

I challenged myself to six minutes…six minutes of sitting quietly in my backyard; no getting up to pull weeds or straighten the patio furniture, no deadheading of perennials or filling of bird feeders. Just six minutes of uninterrupted, quiet observation. It was glorious! I was delighted by a road runner skittering across the meadow (hopefully preying on the abundant grasshopper population), a praying mantis camouflaged in the lawn, and an enormous Eastern swallowtail gathering nectar from a nearby Pride of Barbados.

Beehler concludes his essay with “…[We] should take note of and cherish the riches offered by nature’s changing seasons – the unusual surprises, as well as the benign predictability of the stately annual process. The transition from summer to autumn has close parallels with the passage of our own human lives. We should seize the moment. Live each day with passion. Savor each season’s natural transitions. Make the ephemeral eternal through the richness of preserved and cherished memory.” After my few minutes of quiet solitude and observation, I couldn’t agree more. Go ahead, take six minutes for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.