The 30-Day Sit Spot Challenge is a way for you to connect with the depth of the natural world through one spot in the nature.
You can learn more about this 20 min. a Day Exercise, and why I think the experience can provide interesting opportunities for Writing Prompts, in the Introductory Post, and then follow the link, at the end of each post, to the next chapter.
Question #4: Can you describe the smell of the Earth at your Sit Spot?
Quote to Ponder:
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
Lao Tzu
Okaaaay...10am, on this cool, and partly cloudy day, and I'm supposed to describe the smell of the earth at my feet?
In some spots around the bench, and drying "lake" of the day before, it is damp, and muddy, and in others it is almost dry again.
At the risk of being seen, by passing trail users, as "that guy I saw wallowing in the mud sure was weird, but he really did look great in those Fireman Red Suspenders!"...I got down on all fours, and took a few sniffs. ;-D
The birds were chirping their amusement, and electric saw was making noise somewhere in the distance, and I had my noce stuck in the dirt! ;-D
I know, I know...what folks will do for a story, and for the sake of their art! ;-D
The best I can describe it is that the ground at my feet had a musky, wet, scent, not entirely unpleasant, that was mixed with the more pleasant smell of the still damp flowers, leaves, and trees I was surrounded by, but that's just a fleeting impression from balancing myself for the 10 seconds that it took my camera to do its job.
Lao Tzu was a legendary Chinese Philosopher, and Poet, and elder contemporary of Confucius, and the founder of Religious, and Philosophical Taoism.
Legend has it that he spent 62 years in the womb of his Mother before she had enough, and gave birth to a grown man, and another swears that he lived to the ripe old age of 990.
And people say OTHER Religious Traditions have silly origin stories? ;-D
Be that as it may...this wise old man says that nature takes her own sweet time, yet everything gets done...and he was right I suppose. ;-D
The rain came yesterday, stopping by noon, and everything around my Sit Spot has been slowly drying out ever since.
The plants will dry sooner than the dirt, I think, and the mud under the bench will take longer than the dirt around it, and the "lake" will probably take a week to empty out, and dry completely.
There are plants, and trees, on this Earth that sparked to life long before the birth of Christ, and yet they are still alive, and growing at a pace that only Mother Nature fully understands.
When my 20 minutes were up for the day I stopped on my walk east, on the trail to catch the bus, to smell the flowers, and observe how the creek bed was no longer raging thru the Hart Park north parking area the day after the storm.
Walking along the trail I spotted a different example of Nature accomplishing its purpose, proof that everything was just Ducky, in this little ecosystem, for some residents of the area.
There were 3 distinct "Communities" of Ducks in a 1 mile stretch of the creek, living happily among the rocks, and bushes, and while they were seperated by some distance from each other there was no way to know if they ever interact.
While I took pictures of all 3, only the pics of the first group came out clar enough to show due to my misbehaving camera (It has not been the same since i dropped it in San Clemente last month!).
This group had a Mother Duck escorting her 6 chicks around while yards away, and around a rock, other adults including a couple of guys who may, or may not be the Father, just hung out, seemingly not giving a rats behind for helping with the child rearing duties. ;-D
A second group saw all the adults responsibly helping with the 6 chicks among them.
The third group...well, heh, heh....
Not a chick among them...
I figured that there was a either a really boring Bachelor/Bachelorette Party in progress, a Duck version of The Dating Game going on, or everyone was Gay. ;-D
I know, I know, those ideas are just plain, um, Daffy. ;-D
Oh, and one final observation about the smell of the earth...
Somewhere below my Sit Spot, in a secluded corner of the creek trails below...
A small patch of dirt was soon, maybe, going to smell of sex judging by the loving glances a young Hispanic couple were giving each other as they passed me, and headed, hand in hand, down the narrow path. ;-D
30-Day Sit Spot Challenge: Day 5
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