From an Island, #2
Jon asked for more pictures from Captiva, so I’m thinking, which ones? The strangler vines that remind me of Daphne turning into a tree?
I wish I could show you the turtle that Lucinda saw in the jungle, the one with the delicate sepia pattern on its cream-colored carapace, but s/he hasn’t revealed her/himself to me yet. Whenever one of us sees some new wildlife, there some anxiety about having not been observant enough to see it when it’s a combination of attention and LUCK that brings it about. Bill was able to show me where the screech owl sings and Lucinda had heard him in that spot already several times.
Yesterday I watched an osprey devour a mullet for lunch. there was only half a mullet there by the time I happened on the scene… usually it’s still wriggling as it’s devoured, now that’s, as Beckett would say, “lepping fresh.”
“After lifting its catch from the water, an osprey turns the fish’s head forward, thus reducing wind resistance while flying back to the perch.”
In his new memoir, Nick Flynn notes: “Mimesis, it would seem, can only come from close attention to the world, and this attention (as Weil points out) is a type of prayer, another (possible) way to escape the cage of ego.”
Drawing the little blue heron on the dock of the Fish House was today’s prayer, my blue pencil following the rotation of his body as he warily watched me watching him.
The Crooked Mirror, Louise Steinman's Blog 
January 18, 2013 at 10:13 am
The world observed changes us as much as we change it.
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January 18, 2013 at 10:32 am
love that, yes! thank you Mr. Lormah!
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January 18, 2013 at 12:53 pm
Wonderful sightings, Louise, and a lovely heron.
I’ve been thinking about how watching wildlife is similar to writing. You prepare (sit down at a desk or go for a walk), you bring certain tools to the task (knowledge of where animals might be seen, observational skills, mindfulness, an ability to sit and work), you give time to the pursuit, and then … you see what happens. A sighting, or an inspiration, happens or it doesn’t happen. All you can do is make yourself ready so that you’re less likely to miss it if it does come. You’ll still have had the walk and/or done the day’s work, and on lucky days you get the bonus of a wildlife sighting, or a moment of inspiration, as well.
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January 18, 2013 at 1:01 pm
Exactly, Melissa, thank you! softening the focus while sharpening it. Seeing what comes.
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January 18, 2013 at 1:01 pm
Is it just that you lead such an interesting life–or the way you see things and share them? I love joining you on your adventures.
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January 18, 2013 at 1:02 pm
I love having you join me! You certainly made my adventures in Poland more interesting!
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January 20, 2013 at 9:47 am
From my perch in Hood River: “sigh” and “thank you”
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January 21, 2013 at 4:49 pm
So beautiful Louise, thank you. And yes I am jealous! Love,scotty
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