My current personal challenge while riding is keeping my eyes on the horizon.
I reflected on this recently and noticed my focus is usually the ground five feet ahead of my wheel, or my immediate roadside vicinity. The latter in an attempt to collect nature treasures such as turtle shells or plants I'm learning how to forage. Every so often a bird will catch my attention and pull it upward- which immediately reveals the spectrum of sight I'm missing.
So far it's been a beautiful cornucopia of sights this way- eagles, vultures, hawks, owls, orioles, and many others I am not familiar with, along with the stories between them. Who has eaten who's young, who is courting who, and lastly, I wonder what they are saying and to who, could it be me? ;) There have been snapping turtles, box turtles crossing roads, porcupines, stunned baby skunks, unlucky raccoons, rabbits that seem to grow in size the farther west I travel.
Yet, I've been missing the horizon. The grand scene of the landscape, the open road constant and straight, framed with an ever evolving decor.
My friends like to remind me that I overthink things. I find meaning and poetry in a lot of things, and enjoy finding ways to evolve my words, actions, and perspective. Perhaps peering into the horizon is synonymous with my view towards the future. Or maybe just a different way to entertain myself from this bicycle saddle. Either way, I'll be attempting this new strategy or meditation, and share if I find something between where the sky and earth meet.
For more thoughts on sight read Annie Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek". A good snipbit can be found here:
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/04/annie-dillard-pilgrim-at-tinker-creek-seeing/
No comments:
Post a Comment