A Life Perspective Gazing at Trees

Rich's News from Camp Webegone

July 8, 2016

I noticed something the other day. Our first stint here at Natural Bridge at some point I got focused on the trees. I would walk the trails my head up trying to identify and remember which were Doug Fir, white fir, Ponderosa pine, white pine, Sugar pine, chinkapin tree, yew tree, vine maple, dogwood, lodgepole pine. I did learn to look at my feet and identify trees by the cones. The second year I managed to remember the trees and still focused there... But now I have become more familiar and my gaze has dropped and I am seeing more on the ground. I realized that as I identify more I can take in other things.

I am in the process of reviewing my letters from Haiti, 1998 – 2001, and notice the same process. The overwhelming macro view in Haiti eventually gets replaced with more individual views. Views that come from a backlog of experience.

This is a pattern of my life. Being overwhelmed by a county library or Powell's book store until I can find familiarity and identity particular pieces. I wish my parents had been good at helping me identify the natural life around me. It would have helped me. I get a sense of how Thoreau, living in the area around Walden pond, got to see the life there over a long period of time and seasons. He had incredible observational skills and took the opportunity to live in nature. Life in a Seed is a book of his observations as a Naturalist.

Bird nests, interesting rocks, geology in motion before your eyes, a white pine

with new foliage at its tips looking like skirts with fringes dancing.
Oops! Am now more sure these are Grand Fir..... stay tuned. The Macro view of the the Rogue river is now being more micro views as I see different views each year.