Life is full of extremes, contradictions, vastly diverse interests, and connections.
This morning I heard an interview on the radio in which people on the street were being asked if, while on the toilet, they use their phone. Good grief, I thought, no one does that. But the reporter found it difficult to find anyone who answered, “No” to that question. And with their affirmative response they chuckled as if it was the most natural thing.
All I could think of was how I pitied people who were so tied to their cell phones that they took them into the bathroom with them. I can’t help feeling those people are missing out on real life, nature, where life is blooming and brimming with delights. Which lead me to consider Ross Gay’s thoughts expressed in his essays (The Book of Delights). From the book he writes, “My garden is often on my mind.” Indeed!
When outdoors, whether my own yard, meandering in the forest, or strolling along the beach, there is so much to observe and intrigue. Every season; indeed, every week or every day there are new and changing observations to bring delight.
Just this week for instance: cloven-hooved (deer) depressions in the wet sand; curly amber-toned seaweed abandoned by the tide; the fading flowers of trillium hovering the forest floor; also sprays of Shooting Stars; Salmonberry blooms announcing where their berries will later appear; how about the hummingbird bathing on our rock bubbler, then zoom it’s gone; the snail-like curl of the unfurling ferns.
I don’t know how we convince people that their phone is not the source of growth, love, life, or meaning.
Nature, whether a small patch of back yard or in the midst of the forest, contains private worlds of colour, scent, and amazing beauty. It’s where we will find growth, life, love, meaning.
People often ask me what one thing I would recommend to restore relationship between land and people. My answer is almost always, “Plant a garden.” It’s good for the health of the earth and it’s good for the health of people. A garden is a nursery for nurturing connection, the soil for cultivation of practical reverence. And its power goes far beyond the garden gate — once you develop a relationship with a little patch of earth, it becomes a seed itself.
Robin Wall Kimmerer
i so agree with that garden quote. as for the question about people’s cell phones, i immediately thought of the Seinfeld episode where George took the book into the restroom at the book store and they “flagged” the book and made him buy it. above and beyond the fact that people think more of their phones and their families, i think those phones are “flagged”. lol
the pic of Heidi walking away, down the trail feels melancholy to me for some reason. it’s the scene with no input, i’m sure and i’m reading my own story into it.
I’m convinced that people must learn to pay attention in order to appreciate anything. But once we do, we can learn to care about it and want to nurture and protect it!
I don’t know if my bathroom is exactly “where life is blooming and brimming with delights:” so I’m not missing out on SO MUCH. Except the Guardian Magazine, that I keep in there, and so when I keep my phone out of the bathroom, it’s usually in an effort to keep up with current events.
Whaaa? Why do people need a ‘phone there? The mind boggles!