The Spectacle is all around us
Stella and I went on an extra long walk this morning, down the neutral ground where Endymion stirrings have already begun (portapotty delivery), along the bayou where seagulls spread like a white blanket across the green grass, and into City Park where the birds were still tucked in from a coldish night.
Because she’s a puppy, and still learning how to be on a leash and not dart out after seagulls and dogs and humans and bikes and cars and noises, Stella constantly interrupts my walking meditation. When we entered the park though she did appear to grow calmer, and as we walked along the lagoon, the geese, ducks, black scoters were unruffled by our presence. I closed my eyes and went back into my non thought meditation and happened to look up in the bare trees. There at the top was this fellow – a black crowned Heron – he threw me off because I’m used to the yellow crowned night heron and bluish black crowned herons I normally see in the park. He was a beauty – majestic and powerful up on the top branch.
I thought how could you not look at a bird like this and feel awe?
All around me, the physical space is being invaded by a human energy – a parade is coming, a spectacle is about to happen, and all of the doings that go into making this happen are upon us and yet, in the quiet of the park, in the natural setting of the bayou that has run through there for centuries, birds are oblivious to our actions. Moss grows fat on the oaks. Nature has set its course, and is not so intransigent to give way to changes, subtle or calamitous. Accommodations are always made.
City Park is my living and breathing Turner and Homer. Art in motion.
The spectacle is all around us.