Weekly Prompt No. 19: What’s Old Is New Again
A prompt to help you fall in love again plus another moth from my nature journal and a bit of housekeeping
One of the things I like about exploring my immediate surroundings is that what’s old becomes new the closer I look. When I moved to my current location I made a vow to myself that I wouldn’t take my surroundings for granted. Life happens, my friends, and it can become rote causing our environment to fade into the background.
That’s why I think staycations are fantastic. It’s an opportunity to see the environment through the eyes of a stranger. Nature journaling is like a staycation of sorts. It jolts you out of complacency and into a state of wonder. I’m always amazed at what I rediscover when I take an excursion into my own backyard.
I think we need to be continually reminded of what we love about people, places, nature, etc. Love needs nurturing and respect – all inherent in a nature journaling practice. When we nurture/are nurtured and respect/are respected, we feel connection. And I think feeling a connection to nature, a sense of place, grounds us in profound ways. We feel we belong, and that is greatly comforting. It’s from such a place that we can open ourselves to truly new experiences beyond our comfort zones. It’s how we experience empathy. It’s how we grow.
So this week’s prompt is about looking at something familiar with fresh eyes so that we can rediscover what we love about our place and renew the connection.
Here’s what I propose:
Go to your sit spot, yard, favorite park, or other familiar area.
Just sit quietly and take it all in using all of your senses. What do you sense? What are you seeing and hearing? Do you smell familiar and unfamiliar aromas? Have textures changed or are they the same?
Write down what you observe. Is it the same old, same old? Then look again, look deeper, change seats, get closer - what are you noticing when you change your view?
Generate questions and note them in your journal. How have things changed? Do you have guesses as to why? Is it the seasons, the weather, or anything else external that has caused the change.
Rely on I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of to help you articulate your experience.
Use words, pictures, and numbers to fill in the story and make connections.
Now, take a moment and sit with yourself. Maybe contemplate if the change is from within you because you are part of nature, too. Are you feeling different today than you did the last time you were in this place? Do you find that your nature journaling practice has made you more attuned to your surroundings and maybe the change is you noticing something familiar for the first time? Do you feel a connection that you haven’t felt before?
Use words, pictures, and numbers to fill in the story and make connections.
Then sit with your journal entries for a while and see what connections you can draw between the external and internal experience you just had of this place. Note any observations, questions, conclusions, epiphanies, etc, that come up. Make sure to date-time stamp this entry, because we will revisit this exercise at a future date.
Enjoy, and I’ll be back next week with our August theme post and first prompt.
xoSusannah
A little nature journal update
Since I won’t be able to visit my “apple” tree until tomorrow, I thought I’d share one of the moths from my nature journal (but a tree update is coming, I promise). Thanks to this essay in Chasing Nature, I will never look at moths the same way. It’s National Moth Week, so if you are interested in reading more, go here.
Also…
These are the last few days to upgrade to a paid subscription for 30% off.
July is my 6-month Substack-iversary! While we celebrate nature 365 days of the year, alas we are only celebrating this Substack-iversary until July 31, 2023.
Why upgrade? In addition to the monthly post and weekly prompts you’ve come to love, you’ll also receive the Tiny Owl Dispatch twice a month. It’s a way to share in my journey to becoming a citizen scientist/naturalist/better human with more personal content about nature journaling in Acadia National Park and the surrounding area, my natural history illustration projects, and vlogs from the studio and field. Plus you also get my “podcast” Cricklewood Campfire containing stories, folklore, and folksongs with a nature theme (of course!), and full access to the archive.
If you decide this is the right time for you to upgrade, I’m so grateful. Cricklewood exists with the support of its community. If this isn’t the best time for you, no worries – know that I treasure you and am so happy that you’re nature journaling with me!