Observing Nature While Floating in a Tube on the River

In our Teaching for a Positive Future month-long distance course, one of the exercises asks participants to go outside and observe a "small window" of nature for at least 30 minutes and then report back on their experiences. One of our participants, 5th grade teacher Alison Panik, wrote such a great summary of her experience, that we wanted to share it here:

I did this activity over the weekend floating in a tube on a river.

I noticed that while it was a very hot day, at the river it was cool. The water froze my feet at first. The breeze blew up river and made little waves. It also added to the leisurely drift, slowing my progress to give me time to look around. The trees above me made a canopy. The sides of the river showed evidence of a higher river height, probably from last weekend’s storms. There are little holes along the riverbanks. Probably snakes. I imagine what if otters lived in this river and wonder why they don’t. There must be tons of insects over my head because there are birds darting back and forth, sometimes turning in mid-air and looking like they are going to collide, but just missing each other. The bush over here in the sun is always full of dragonflies, blue and black ones. Two large, black dragonflies with broad wings are playing all around us. They seem to have no idea we are here, they are so involved in what they are doing. They go on and on until one is behind my tube and the other in front and they can’t see each other. Are they fighting? Are they mating? Or are they just playing?

There is an old tire and a dead fish nearby on the side of the river. Related or not? I grab the tire and float it down river to the landing so I can roll it to the garbage can when I’m done. I hear the birds, but I also can hear the trucks and cars on the turnpike. The smell changes from fishy to that fragrance that I recognize to be corn, depending on which way the breeze blows. The corn field is way down around the bend. I see fishing line caught in a bush and it gets caught on my shoe. There are ripe wild raspberries on a bush hanging over the river. I use my arms to pull on over there and fill my hands with sweet berries. As I am carried steadily along, I see a shoe drifting down the river behind me. It’s not my shoe – both of them are still on my feet! But I hold onto a rock and wait for it to near and I grab it. It’s a nice shoe and it’s my size. Will the other come drifting along? It never does.

My dog scares a blue heron out of its riverbank repose and it goes squawking up into flight over my head and down the river. I’ve never heard the sound they make. It is an ugly alarm and does not match the serenity of the bird at all. A duck is swimming ahead off us. Her baby went underwater and disappeared. Do baby ducks swim underwater? Do they know how to do that?

What stood out for me after writing my observations is how there are stories in nature that are just happening all around us and they'll sometimes happen whether we are there or not. Questions were born. I saw things from my place in the river that I have never seen in 40 years standing at the side of the river.

Image courtesy of krossbow via Creative Commons.

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