Peace and Still

The results of taking Ms. Farias's AP English class has me staring nightly into an open area of unknown for an oberservation project. The purpose of this project is to witness ourselves the collaboration of art and knowledge, and, hopefully, along the way, a life lesson. For the next two months, I will be observing the night life of my backyard in the little city of Sparks, Nevada. As typical as my backyard may look, things are never how they seem.

A month into my project I became very fond of my backyard, and appreciative of nature herself. With the time that had passed I learned nature does a lot for everyone on this planet, and although my backyard may be a small piece of nature it still contained active life. What I learned most importantly, was I couldn't force myself to be inspired by nature, I had to let nature inspire me own its own time. 

As I sat outside searching for new information for my fields notes I began to get frustrated. I didn't know what to write. Ms. Farias told us that using the five senses will help with the process of gathering notes, but I didn't see anything, I didn't hear anything, I didn't taste anything, I didn't smell anything, nor did I feel anything. I knew I was trying too hard and just needed to let nature inspire me diligently. I leaned against my wall, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath.

Michelle Santos's photo

As I opened my eyes I couldn't help but to feel the most overwhelming, yet tender feeling ever. "While my eyes were closed I noticed the immense amount of peace and stillness I feel sitting in my backyard. My heartbeat mimicking the beat of the cricket's tunes, my thoughts flowing with the whispering winds, my body pressed against the imperfectly smooth concrete, and my favorite part--the darkness that swallows the light away. My backyard is beginning to become one of my favorite places." Field notes 10/23.

After that small experience of sweet serendipity, I learned I can't force myself to see certain things or make certain things happen in my backyard because the more I try to, the less I'll actually see and the less that will happen.  Mother Nature has its nightly agenda ready for me, therefore I need to let nature take its course and I just need to follow it along the way. I also applied this to my daily life. I may want certain things to happen in my life and I may try to make it happen, but I can only let the clock tick and know that what is ahead of me is what is meant for me. One more life lesson down from Mother Nature, many more to go.

Once I was back in my house after that night, I was strongly reminded of one of my all time favorite movies, Now You See Me. The Movie sends a similar message that can be applied to many aspects of life.  The Movie is about a group of four talented magicians who leave their audience questioning every single trick they perform. As they perform a trick that seems to involve doing some crime, the police department tries to reveal how the magicians were able to perform what, to them, is a crime. The magicians and others are constantly telling the police that the more they try to figure out their tricks the less they'll figure out. One of the magicians states, "Look closely. Because the closer you think you are, the less you'll actually see." Take a quick look for yourself to see the similarities between the movie and the lesson nature taught me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OtM9j2lcUA

                                                     
                                                               Work Cited

Now You See Me. Dir. Louis Leterrier. Screenplay by Ed Solomon, Boaz Yankin, and Edward  Ricourt. Perf. Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffafalo, Woody Harrelson, Melanie Laurent, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman. 2012. Film. Youtube. N.p. n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.

 

 

Meet The Randoms

Once summer is out of the way and fall is ready to settle in, a great amount of stores begin to put all summer merchandise on sale to stock up for fall merchandise, and sure enough I just happen to have the typical "It's on sale so I just have to buy it" parents. As my parents were roaming around the garden center at Home Depot, they decided to buy two trees, a plum and Fuji apple tree.


Michelle's photo
Fuji apple tree (left) Plum tree (right)

When the trees first arrived I thought it was probably the most random thing my parents could have done, just for the fact that fall is here (even though it is sunny and the weather is pretty warm) and winter will approach us soon, how are the trees gong to survive through harsh weather conditions? After doing some research my mind was yet again blown as I learned that not all trees get contaminated by the fall virus, which explains why my older tree has not shed any leaves yet. When fall arrives some trees adapt to the new weather conditions to survive, they do so by ensuring that their leaves get filled with sugar because it protects the cells in the leaves from being penetrated by the frosty snow which causes the leaves to fall off. Trees also do other interesting processes to adapt to fall and winter. For more information take a quick look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d260CmZoxj8 .

I'm not quite sure what exact type of trees are able to survive through fall and winter, but it is a relief to know that the new family members of my backyard have a shot of making it to next spring. If my trees are able to survive through winter I wonder if they will continue to produce fruit? As for right now only time can tell.

Before I finish, I also would like to talk about the changes I've noticed with myself now that fall is here. Trees, plants, and animals are not the only things that adapt to fall, humans do too. As I sit every night outside, I couldn't help to notice how much falls affects me. "Hair runs in to my face, chapped lips make me lick them over and over again, dry skin, goose bumps crawl onto my skin." Field notes 10/19

The changes I'm going to have to make so I can survive fall and winter reminds me of a topic that Ms. Farias blogged about: Everything in the world affects each other. I couldn't agree anymore. Fall is not just a nature thing, nature is not just trees, birds, and water, nature is us as well. We unknowingly participate in nature everyday, and are blind to realize that when nature is at work, it also affects us. As dominant and powerful humanity may thing it may be, we fail to realize that we cannot live without the biggest, little necessity, nature. 

Let It Go

Unfortunately after 14 days worth of field notes, they were left unattended and put in the wrong hands. Having my field notes disappear I felt strongly discouraged having to start all over because I felt it wasn't going to be nearly as good as my first book of field notes, especially when the first book contained sincere and dedicated work, but after a bit I began to let it go. As I began to write in my new book of field notes I started to notice the color change on the leaves on my neighbor's tree, the howling winds from my tree and others, and the goose bumps creeping onto my body from the nighttime breeze, "The virus of fall is slowly contaminating what surrounds me, and even myself." Field notes 10/7.

Michelle Santos's photograph
 

That night it hit me, fall is getting closer and closer, meaning no more summer romances, dashing through the crisp sand, or basking in the sun. For many of us, including myself, it's hard to breakup with the strong and memorable relationship that's been created with summer, and move on so quickly, but as I let go of my lost field notes, I realized I had to let go of my summer love and look forward to the new creations of fall that I've already begun to fall in love with, and as for my lost field notes I realized it was an opportunity to connect with nature on a deeper level, and maybe just maybe, my field notes are in the hands of someone who needed some soul searching, or some information on crickets.(somewhere along those lines)

It may be a bit too early, but I feel as though Mother Nature has already begun to teach me one of her simple, but life changing lessons, let go of the small bumps in life, move on, and look forward to the better things in life that are sure to come.

You Are Smarter Than You Think You Are, Think Again.

For as long as I can remember I have always been told that I am smarter than I think I am, but for the first time, others, including myself, have been proven wrong. This observation project is not just about observing some part of nature and scribbling down what we see, but it is also about questioning nature's mysterious ways of working, asking why things happen or how things happen. Every single day my presence is surrounded by nature, and what I see is only an inch of what I think I may know, and after two weeks of observing I took it upon myself to try to reveal some of natures secrets.

The damn cricket. Where is it? I don't know. How does it look like? I don't know. What I do know is that the cricket is continuing to announce the commencement of a vivid night as it sings its symphony, but why does it sing? Is it a celebration tune? Or rather than a cheerful tune, is it a scream of fear as the dark eats away the light and is at a troubled thought of whether or not it will survive through the night's terror?  Or maybe it's just perfect timing to fill in the awkward silence of a situation? For my classmates, Wooster students, and teachers reading my blog, I ask that you take the time to think about why crickets chirps, because to your surprise, you might be quite shocked as to why crickets really chirp. (I've always thought that crickets chirp because they were asleep and it was their way of snoring, then again I use to think daddy and mommy loved to have tickle fights, boy was I wrong.)

Men are usually stereotyped as someone who only wants and cares about one thing, having sex. In some cases it may be true, in others it's not, but in the case of crickets it is a stereotype that applies accurately. Firstly, only male crickets can chirp. They chirp for four reasons only: to attract a female and scare off another male nearby, this chirp is usually very loud; a quiet song is sung  when a female is around, but no male is near; to detect any males close to the cricket, this chirp is aggressive; lastly a cricket will chirp for a very short period, sharing with the world that it has had such a successful mating with its lover. (Score for the little guy.)



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Like I've said before, what we see is only an inch of what we may think we know, and what we think we may see, is never what it seems to be.