Finding Bliss
Requires looking away from blah
Today is one of my happiest days of the entire year! It’s the first day it’s been warm enough for me to do some of my work outside, on the little stone patio that surrounds the little waterfall that my husband built for me.
Here’s a little video I just shot. Just listen. It’s so peaceful.
I didn’t want to come outside this morning. I wanted to do what I’ve been doing this past week — using the laptop, from the sofa, with the big trial on TV in the background. (Don’t worry, I’m not going there.) But then Roxy wanted to go out, and I opened the door, and nature smacked me upside the head with beauty! It was so warm and wonderful and sunny outside that it lured me out of my cave. My favorite bird, the brown thrasher, was perched in the very top of a cherry tree singing his little heart out. He sings two quick lines from every song he knows. It always feels like a comedy routine to me.
“ca-caw, ca-caw! Tweedly-deet, tweedly-deet! Wakka, wakka! Chirrrrp, Chirrrp! Pretty bird, pretty bird!”
On and on and on he goes and his repertoire is wider every spring. I love that bird. He’s a part of the mocking bird family, I understand, and that makes sense. I wonder if I were to sing a two-note verse to him every day, he’d begin adopt it into his set.
New life goal!
Just standing there in the open doorway listening to the thrasher, I felt my vibration rise. I hadn’t realized it needed a lift! So, I grabbed the laptop, a cup of coffee, my 3” thick biology textbook, my water bottle, and my sunhat and headed outside.
I couldn’t decide which of the 101 tasks facing me today to do first, so I took some fish food up to the pond and fed the fish. Only the smallest ones came out, but yesterday in the afternoon, the big guys surfaced and fed when we tossed in the fish chow for the first time of the year. So I got to gaze at the fish for a while. I haven’t had this chance since last fall, and it’s the most beautiful kind of meditation. Just joyful.
Since the big guys didn’t wake up, I only did a little food for the smallfries. (Not literally. They’re one- and two-year-olds.) When the sun gets up higher than the spruce trees and warms the water, the big fish will wake up. Our four largest are Orange, Spotty, Peaches, and Cream, all that remain of our original six, plus a rescue, Snowflake. Those 5 fish are each approximately 30” long.
And then I sat down to write this post, because I was feeling quite blissful. And it occurred to me that all it took to get to feeling this way was just a few minutes outside on a beautiful day, observing beautiful things that I love.
The pond is above and behind the waterfall, separated by a narrow band of grass and the guardian spruces. The plants around the waterfall are just starting to fill out, and last year’s mulch still remains on the ground around them.
The Shift
All it took was shifting my focus away from the rather dim living room, shaded as it is by the spruce trees on that side of the house, and away from the constantly breaking news and its focus on crises, disaster, and division, to really raise my vibe far higher than it had been hanging out.
I don’t want to go back in just yet. Roxy does, though. She’s been lying in the shade. I’ve been sitting in the sun, and my right arm is starting to feel a little bit hot. Oh, wait. Roxy laid back down in a cool, comfy spot in the deep shade. I have quietly turned my chair around. Maybe a little bit longer! Next time I’ll bring my bug-repelling incense stick. It uses natural oils, and won’t hurt the bugs. The tiny, biting flies we in the northeast call “no-see-’ems” and some call May flies, are out in force. They don’t bite me much. They just get in my face and sometimes my hair and generally irritate me. They dislike my blood type, and maybe all the garlic in there. They bite my O-neg hubby like crazy, though. Universal donor. 🤷♀️
This feels good, this day. That’s the lesson for today, I guess. A reminder to me and all who are reading, to bask as often as we can. If you haven’t done so in a while, then your vibe might be lower than you even realize. It took a hit of springtime to jumpstart mine. And honestly, I’ve been feeling pretty good of late, and didn’t realize I needed the refresh.
So bask in something. Anything. But nature is the best thing, I think. The absolute best thing.
I’m going inside, reluctantly. The internet connection is stronger and I have to upload the photos and video for this post. But I intend to spend a lot of this day outside, recharging my batteries. Many of us, at least those in my neck of the woods, have been living off our battery power since last October or so. We can be outdoors in winter, of course, but it’s not the same. We’re all bundled up, insulated from nature, and the sun is low and weak. But in spring, oh, in spring, the clothes come off and we can bask in nature one-on-one, skin-to-skin.
By the way, when I say bask, I don’t mean "sunbathe.” We all know more harmful rays get through the atmosphere today than when we were kids. I don’t particularly like sunblock, so I wear my hats and light sleeves when I have to be exposed for long periods, like at parades or baseball games. Short periods of unprotected sun exposure, however, fill us with Vitamin D. But those periods should be no more than fifteen minutes. After my fifteen, I usually move to a shady spot. So when I say bask, I mean bask in nature herself.
Bask in what’s beautiful to you. For me it’s my waterfall, my pond, my fish, an easy jog or long slow walk, and my veggie garden, coming soon! For you it can be anything you love. A museum, a picnic, a hike, a run, a flea market, the beach, gardening, skateboarding… Just do something you love outside when spring warms enough to allow it.
I’m thinking, too, of my friends below the equator, just entering the magical season of autumn, the season of magic and mystery. Blowing a kiss from the season of life and light.
Your Next Obsession…
Play with sound up. I made it myself, it’s cute AF, and the license to that music wasn’t cheap.