See, Observe

cherry blossoms branches Easter 2022 Mary

Sanibel 2022 – We rode all around the island. We looked up. We looked down. We slowed to look left. We slowed to look right. We saw birds hiding and swooping. We saw gators swimming and sunning. We soaked in the sunshine and tropical flowers. We rode. We observed.

When I look at this piece of bark, it makes me look deeper. This piece of bark reminds me of binoculars. When I am looking through the bark, I close my eyes and imagine I am on a boat. I am looking through my binoculars. I’m seeing the waves move and the seagulls soaring. It makes me feel like I am FREE.

Today, I found a folder from 2017 titled Soft Start/Greenbelt. In it were pictures of 5th graders and their journal pages. I scrolled through the images in awe at what kids were sketching and writing. Denia, the classroom teacher and I, shared a belief in children and journals. We believed they deserved space and time to think on paper, to discover on paper, to observe. We believed that the habits nurtured in this time were essential to growing them as writers.

Six years ago, I started this blog and I titled it, Let’s Observe. My path to becoming, to believing, I was a writer was founded on observation. There were many questionable sketches and line drawings 29 years ago. What I discovered through those questionable drawings was space to think and time to harness ideas swirling in my busy mind. To this day, I believe in the power of observation and cultivating that habit for writers. I believe in it and I live it.

I was gifted beautiful Cherry Blossom branches for Easter this year. “Just put them in water. I’ve snipped them as they should be snipped so they will open just sitting in the water.” Mary told me as she handed me the branches. Thursday after Easter, sure enough, those tiny cherry buds began to unfold into soft pink blossoms.

Observation is a path to writing and living.